Secrets From The Grave
by redsoxchamp07
Summary: The NCIS team is in for a surprise when a girl shows up at headquarters claiming to be Jenny Shepard's daughter.  But is that the only secret Jenny had? Jibbs/Post JD
1. Back to DC

Secrets from the Grave

Summary: The NCIS team is for a surprise when a girl shows up at headquarters claiming to be Jenny Shepard's daughter. But is that they only secret Jenny had? Jibbs/Post JD

_Disclaimer: Everything belongs to CBS & the creators & producers of NCIS. If I owned them, Jenny would still be alive…_

Spoilers: Major Ones for Seasons Three through Five (especially for Judgment Day) & Minor ones for the seasons following that.

Chapter One: Back to D.C.

Tears welled up, burning her eyes. Drawing her legs up close, she buried her face in the crook of her knees. The light faded hours before surrounding her in darkness. But the air of loneliness suffocated her more than the darkness ever could. The light tapping on the door didn't even motivate her to spare a glance up. There was only one person that could be knocking on her door and he wouldn't hesitate to barge in after a minute or so. No one besides him knew where she lived. Hell, barely anyone knew she existed. Any friends she had thought she disappeared off the face of the planet seven years ago. And her family…her family…oh God!

As the thought of her family crossed her mind, her tears flowed harder and faster. The door creaked open and she knew he heard her distant cries. He'd given her space for the better part of the day, but she knew he must be panicking by now. Anyone else who knew him would never believe he had a caring bone in his body, but she knew different. He worried about her. Tried his best not to hover too much, but still he worried.

She felt the bed sag as he sat down next to her. When his arm draped around her shoulders, she finally risked a look up at him. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she attempted to smile up at him hating the fact that after seven years the anniversary of her mother's death still hit her this hard. Smiling back at her, he held out a bottle for which she raised her eyebrow questionably.

"It's just root beer," he laughed. "'bout the only thing I can give you for another few years."

"Oh yes because you are such a model parent. I'm actually surprised you haven't tried to give me the real thing before."

"Despite my best efforts, you're still too good of a kid to actually take a real beer from me. Plus you're mother took our four badasses singlehandedly and I wouldn't put it past her to haunt me from the grave if I ever…" he trailed off, realizing his mistake when her head sank back down.

Silently cursing himself, he pulled her close, letting her cry it out on his shoulder. "Hey, I'm sorry. Forgot what I was sayin for a minute there."

"I – thought – saying – you're – sorry – was – a sign – of – weakness," she choked out through her sobs.

"That rule doesn't apply today." He rubbed her back while she cried some more, whispering reassurances that everything would be okay. Glancing over her shoulder, he noticed the pictures scattered across the bed. Poor girl wasn't helping herself any. Not that he'd be stupid enough to point that out after his previous slip up.

"Hey," he said, lifting her chin so her eyes met his. "I may have something to cheer ya up." Reaching beside him, he picked up the envelope he'd just gotten from the Cantina and handed it to her.

She opened it to find a plane ticket and her eyes lit up. "My ticket to D.C." Smiling her first genuine smile all day, she pulled him into a tight hug. "Thanks, Uncle Mike – for everything," she added. There was no possible way to thank him for taking care of her for seven years. The best she could come up with was to move back to D.C. and trying for emancipation. Her mother left her everything, certainly enough to manage on her own for a number of years, and Mike needed to get back to his own life of drinking beer and fishing. Raising a kid wasn't the ideal retirement, after all. And with Leila having moved, he'd been stuck doing it all on his own the past few years.

Mike knew she thought she was burdening hum and while that was hardly the case he supported her decision to move back to D.C. Here in Mexico she was still grieving. Maybe back in D.C. she could finally move on.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Emily?" Agent Peterson could hardly believe his eyes when he saw the young woman approaching the sign in desk. Last time he saw her she couldn't have been any older than eight or nine, but he'd recognize that flaming red hair and crystal blue eyes anywhere. Normally, he overlooked Agent DiNozzo's betting pools, but as a girl, Emily had sparked his suspicions enough to enter one particular pool. "My God, it is you! I haven't seen you since you were a kid."

She smiled back at him while glancing about the lobby, eyes drinking in everything there was to see. "I know it's been years since I've been here."

"I'm sorry about your godmother, Emily."

"Thanks," she responded, trying hard to mask the pain in her voice.

Knowing the routine, she plunked her backpack on his desk, letting him search through it. After insuring it was clear of any threats, he handed it back to her along with a visitor's badge. "Here to see Agent David?" He asked, while beginning to fill out the visitor log.

"Actually, I'm here to see Special Agent Gibbs," she stated as if it was nothing unusual. Agent Peterson smirked as he crossed Ziva's name out and replaced it with Gibbs'. He had a funny feeling there might be some money in his near future.

"You are all set. Still remember the way or do you want me to walk you up?"

"I remember," she said solemnly as distant memories resurfaced behind her eyes. "It was good to see you again, Agent Peterson."

"Same here." She started towards the elevator, but Agent Peterson couldn't resist his curiosity. "Emily?"

When she turned back to face him, he finally plucked up the courage to ask what he'd always known. "She wasn't just your godmother, was she?"

"No. She wasn't," Emily stated, not divulging anything more. She knew what he was asking and knew she didn't actually need to say it out loud.

"I am truly sorry. NCIS hasn't been the same without her."

Her only reply was a nod, but before she turned back to the elevator he noticed a stray tear slowly falling down her cheek. That's when he realized how drastically different this young distant woman was from the vibrant little girl he once knew. Perhaps NCIS wasn't the only thing that wasn't the same anymore.

As soon as the elevators shut, she flicked the emergency stop button. Sliding down the cool metal wall, Emily closed her eyes trying to will the tears away. Maybe coming to the place where everyone knew her mother was a bad idea. At least in Mexico, she could curl in a ball and drown her sorrows in root bear. No one knew her there, no one knew her mother. In Mexico, her pain was her own. But here in D.C.? Here she might have to share her pain and even harder – share her mother's memory.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

"Hey, Probie?" Tony hollered across the bullpen to McGee.

"What, Tony?"

"I thought the Boss was out."

"He is."

"Well, who else would be using the elevator as an office?" He asked pounding the button repeatedly.

"No idea, but if you keep pounding the button, you're going to break it and you better hope Gibbs isn't in there when you do."

"It's not…" Push. "My fault…" Push. "He always…" Push. "Feels the…" Push. "Need to…" Ding! "Alright! See there, Probie? Sometimes you got to…Hello?" Tony trailed off when the doors opened and he came face to face with, not Gibbs, but a young redhead who reminded him a lot of… "Whoa!"

"Um…sorry," the girl apologized, brushing past him to allow him to enter.

Tony started to move into the elevator, but quickly spun back around. He couldn't shake the feeling that she looked so familiar. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"I'm actually looking for Agent Gibbs."

Tony tilted his head back towards the bullpen indicating for her to follow him. "He's actually out for the moment. Should be back in an hour or so. Anything I can do for you in the mean time, Miss…"

"Uh…my names Emily," she filled in. "It's nothing all that important, Agent…DiNozzo. Is there a place I could wait for Agent Gibbs to return?"

"Sure, just follow…" he started before backpedaling. He never introduced himself and, while she seemed familiar, he didn't believe they'd ever met. "How did you know my name?"

"My mom…she used to work for NCIS. She told me a lot about Agent Gibbs and his team. Truthfully, I took a guess you were Agent DiNozzo. He…" she said pointing towards McGee, who had stopped upgrading the something or other, of which Tony had ignored his earlier explanation of, and was now watching the exchange with increasing interest. "Has a nicer computer so I figured he was more likely Agent McGee."

"Your mother worked for NCIS?" McGee asked before Tony could form some inappropriate joke. _Damn, it was a good one too!_ Tony cursed at the Elflord's interruption, but had to admit he was curious to hear the girls answer.

"A number of years ago, yes. She used to be the Director."

McGee just stood there opened mouthed and gaping, while Tony stared at her like she'd spoken a different language. Sure she looked like Jenny, but she couldn't actually be…could she? "So when you say 'used to the Director,' you're talking about…"

"Yes," she confirmed. "My name is Emily Shepard and Jenny Shepard was my mother."

After a few moments, Tony looked back at McGee who looked over at Emily and then Tony again, saying, "I'll call Gibbs."

While McGee dialed Gibbs, Tony just stared at the girl. Now that she said it, now that she voiced it out loud, all he could see was Jenny. How could he have doubted it even for a second when everything about her screamed 'Jenny.' Everything but her eyes, that is. She didn't have Jenny's green eyes. Instead she had these deep blue eyes that were surprisingly familiar. God, it was on the tip of his tongue! "Gibbs," he whispered finally, drawing Emily's attention off McGee's phone call. "Gibbs is your father."

While it wasn't a question, she still opened and closed her mouth several times as if to speak, but no words came out – which was a confirmation in and of itself. The Probie had frozen in place looking like a deer in headlights, having just finished his call to Gibbs in time to catch Tony's revelation.

"Emma," someone cried, dragging him back to the scene around him.

"Aunt Ziva!" the girl cried, running over to Ziva and enveloping her in a tight hug.

Tony watched Ziva hold the girl at arm's length, examining her thoroughly, before pulling her in for a second hug. "It has only been a few months since I last saw you and you have still grown up so much! We must see each other more frequently, yes? Now, come sit. We must catch up."

McGee and Tony stared at the scene before them, watching Ziva pull a second chair over to her desk for Emma to sit in. Tony couldn't believe it and he doubted the Probie could either. Ziva knew Jenny had a daughter and didn't tell them! But more than that, she knew Jenny had a daughter with _Gibbs_ no less and yet continuously chastised him for believing Gibbs and Jenny to have been more than just partners back in the day.

"You knew?" Tony finally managed to squeeze out in disbelief.

"Of course I knew, Tony. I worked with Jenny when she was pregnant and continued to work with her throughout Emma's childhood."

"Don't blame Ziva, Agent DiNozzo. No one from NCIS was allowed to know except a handful of people and they only knew because it was unavoidable. I was kept as much a secret as I could be. I don't even live in the States anymore. Not since…" she trailed off and Tony gulped as the guilt swelled up inside him.

"Please call me Tony. Emma, about your mom…" he started, knowing he had to apologize. If he hadn't been so stubborn and gone after Jenny like Ziva wanted to, Jenny might still be alive.

"Don't," Emma cut him off, walking over and resting a hand on his arm. "Please, don't. Ziva told me you two blamed yourselves for what happened. It was not your fault, Tony. Trust me when I say, even if you tried to follow her, if my mom didn't want you involved, she would make sure you never found her."

Tony nodded not trusting his voice and also unsure of what he could possibly say. Deciding it best to change the topic, he opted to ask a question instead. "Does Gibbs know?"

"No!" she injected immediately. "And he can never know," she added making everyone, even Ziva, uncomfortable.

"Emma…" Ziva began.

"My mom didn't tell any of you she was sick, did she?"

"No," the all answered confused.

"My mother was already sick when she died. I don't know much about it since I was too little at the time, but I do know it's genetic and she was dying." Tony sighed. He hated the feeling, but knowing Jenny would have died and probably more horribly than she actually did helped him relive some of the guilt that had been looming over him the past seven years.

"He's your father, Emma. You need to tell him," Ziva attempted to reason.

"My mother told me about my sister Kelly," Emma pointed out and the three fell silent. "My mom had a genetic disease and there's a likely chance she passed it on to me. So you tell me, do you really think my father can handle losing another daughter?"

Any protests the three could come up with were silenced with the mention of Kelly and left them all questioning if the young girl had a point. McGee finally broke the silence, wondering, "If you never planned to tell Gibbs the truth, why are you here?"

"I want to move back to D.C. and in order to do that I need to be emancipated. Now, while I was a secret to NCIS, the media, and people like that, to the rest of the world? Not so much. So as long as his name is on my birth certificate, I need his signature."

"How do you plan on convincing him to sign an emancipation agreement without telling him he's your father?"

"I've been living with Mike Franks for the past seven years. I have a few tricks up my sleeve."

Tony smiled at that. "Planning on tricking a federal agent into unknowingly signing over his rights to your freedom…oh you are your mother's daughter!"

"Tony, about my mom… I know she probably wasn't your favorite person…"

"Emma, you don't have to…" Tony began, knowing this wasn't the young girls fight.

"No, Tony. Let me finish. I know she was a bit of a bitch here, but she was a great mom. The two of us had a deal that the Director Façade disappeared the second she got home."

"I'm sure she…"

"But she crossed a line with the La Grenouille incident. I was too young to truly understand what happened at the time, but looking back I can honestly say she should have never put you through that – not even for me."

"For you? I thought she believed La Grenouille murdered her father."

"She did, but there was more to it than that."

"La Grenouille kidnapped Emma in Cairo when she was four," Ziva injected, stunning Tony. Everyone knew that the level of obsession Jenny's pursuit took came from far more than the murder of her father, but the kidnapping of her daughter? For that, Tony almost had to respect that Jenny hadn't gone farther. He didn't have to be a parent to know that when it came to the protection of their kids, there were no limits. Agent Lee proved that to him years ago.

"When my mother became Director, we fell back on La Grenouille's radar. She wanted to protect me, but she went too far."

"No she didn't. If our roles were reversed, I would have done the same."

"Still…I don't think she ever told you how sorry she was, so let me apologize for her because she truly did regret what she put you through."

"You know if Gibbs were here, he would…"

"I would what, DiNozzo?" Gibbs' voice hollered across the bullpen, causing Tony to jump.

"How does he always do that?" Tony muttered to himself, watching Gibbs make his way over from the elevator. Things were sure to get interesting now.


	2. Home to the States

Chapter Two: Home to the States

Author's Note: Thank you so much for all your reviews. Keep them coming! Just as a heads up the chapters will alternate between the "present day" story from chapter one and Jenny's story from the series because a lot of Jenny's reasoning about things like leaving Gibbs in Parris and how Emily would fit into the events of the actual NCIS series, especially during the La Grenouille story arc, will be important for the present day story.

I also feel I should point out that when I named Jenny's daughter Emily, it never even occurred to me that Fornell and Diane's daughter has the same name. No one mentioned it thus far, but if you picked up on that I kind of address that in this chapter since it wasn't intentional. Finally, the reason Ziva refers to Emily as 'Emma' even though it's not a typical nickname for Emily will be addressed in Chapter 3.

Okay now that's I've bored you with an absurdly long authors note, enjoy the story and keep the reviews coming!

**September of 2005**

The place hadn't changed a bit, even after its many years of going unused. Glancing up at the home she spent the majority of her youth growing up in, Jenny Shepard couldn't help but think of how right it felt knowing this would be the home she would raise her own child in. A smile wove its way onto Jenny's face, but it had less to do with her childhood home and more to do with the shocked expression on the young girl standing next to her's face.

The girl's brilliant blue eyes widened at the sight of their new home. "We're gonna live here?" the young voice piped up and Jenny tried hard not to laugh. After all the three bedroom Georgetown townhouse must look like a mansion to the girl compared to the small, often cramped, apartments and safe houses they'd lived in throughout Europe.

"It's 'going to' not 'gonna,' Emily," Jenny corrected. "But yes, this is our new home." Jenny took the girl's hand and started to lead her up the front stairs. Despite her protests, her new security detail insisted on bringing in the boxes of belongings the two had. "I grew up here, you know?"

"Really?" If it were possible, Emily's eyes lit up even more.

"Yes. It was mostly my mother and me too. My father was in the military so he was often away."

"Grandpa was in the military?" Emily asked, skipping through the door into their new home.

"Yes he was."

"Just like my Daddy!" Emily exclaimed spinning around the front hall laughing before facing her mother with a wide smile on her face.

Jenny smiled back down at her. Emily spoke of her father, but much to Jenny's surprise, she never once questioned the fact that for now she was to remain a secret. Jenny counted herself lucky that she had such an amazing and understanding daughter because if Emily had begged her, even once, to meet her father Jenny would undoubtedly have caved. But while Emily understood the secrecy, that did not mean she didn't ask about him and Jenny did her best to tell Emily all she could about him. "That's right. Your Dad was a marine before he joined NCIS. Speaking of which, remind me to find that photo of your father I promised you. It should be in one of the boxes I sent here a few years back when we started traveling more frequently."

"Only that's not why you sent them back," Emily interrupted, innocently swaying from side to side. When Jenny didn't respond, Emily smiled sweetly and took her silence as a means to continue. "You sent it back because pictures of Daddy make you sad since you still love him, but he can't know that or know about me."

"You are way too observant from someone your age." Jenny chuckled slightly watching Emily smile, proud of herself. She was just like her father sometimes.

Her smile faded, when her thoughts drifted to Jethro. She would see him for the first time in six years tomorrow. How could she face him after leaving him? How could she face him knowing they had a daughter – an amazing and wonderful daughter – and not be able to tell him?

As if sensing her mother's discomfort, Emily ran over and wrapped her arms around Jenny's waist tightly. "It's okay, Mommy. I know Daddy can't know yet. Having you is enough 'cause I love you."

"Oh, I love you too, baby," Jenny reciprocated, bending down to envelope her daughter in a deep hug. "I love you so so much."

"Um…Director?" a voice called from the doorway.

Jenny pulled back smiling, as she turned to see Stanley shifting uncomfortably with several bags in his hands. "Come on in, Stanley. You can just drop those anywhere. There's nothing valuable in them…only Emily's things."

"Hey!" Emily objected, punching a laughing Jenny lightly on the arm. When Jenny turned back, she launched a tickle attack on her daughter. "Okay…okay…I give up," screeched Emily in between her laughter.

Stanley watched the scene before him amused. It was good to see this side of the Director now because he had a feeling, outside these walls, she would not be so carefree. He placed the bags next to the door, as lightly as possible to please the young girl.

"Thank you, Stanley," Jenny said gratefully. "As for you, young lady, why don't you head upstairs and pick out the bedroom you want."

"I can have any room I want?" she asked, not waiting for Jenny to answer before running off towards the stairs.

"Any...except," she hollered causing Emily to halt on the first stair. "The one with the bathroom is mine."

"But mom…" Emily whined, using her puppy dog pout that generally got her anything she wanted.

"Don't 'but mom' me. First off, it is hardly a long walk from either bedroom to the bathroom. And secondly, with the hall bath, I'll notice faster if you flood the bathroom like that time in Germany."

"How many times do I have to tell you that was Auntie Ziva?"

"Uh huh, sure it was," laughed Jenny.

"Nom de Dieu," muttered Emily, as she started up the stairs again.

"Where did you learn that?" Jenny yelled.

"Aunt Ziva," Emily hollered down.

'_Oh for the love of God! First she tries to teach her to fire a gun and now she's teaching her to curse in French. I have got to remember to explain to her what age appropriate means.'_

"Emily! Let's go or you'll be late for school," Jenny hollered up the stairs. They still had plenty of time, but today was Jenny's first day as Director and she was more than a bit anxious. "I want you to have time to eat your Pop-Tart and at this point you'll be eating it on the way," she added after a minute of silence.

"Coming!" Emily cried and the loud thuds of her running down the upstairs hall confirmed that. Jenny smiled for the umpteenth time at the thought that Emily had chosen the bedroom she had as a child. Granted it no longer looked anything like it had when she was growing up, since it had been converted into a guest room years back, but Jenny found that a good thing. Her daughter deserved to finally be able to add her own style to a room for the first time. She was looking forward to their shopping trip planned for this weekend already.

"Be careful!" Jenny warned, as Emily ran down and jumped the last two stairs.

Jenny angled her video camera to look Emily up and down. She filmed all of Emily's moments, big and small, so that when she finally did tell Jethro about Emily, he wouldn't have to miss out completely. It wasn't the same, she knew, but for now it was the best she could do. "She looks adorable, doesn't she Jethro?" And adorable Emily did look in her new uniform skirt and polo shirt.

"Okay so do you have your backpack?" Jenny started their morning checklist.

"Check," Emily said, turning to show off her new Eeyore themed pack.

"Good. Now, what about your Dad's rule number nine?" While she knew a normal six year old should carry around a knife, after the La Grenouille incident, she caved into allowing Ziva to teach Emily the basics and bought her the dullest, most child-friendly, pocket knife she could find. It ended up being so dull, Jenny doubted it would inflict more than a paper cut, but it did provide her some level of comfort. Thankfully, Emily was also advanced enough for her age to comprehend Ziva's instructions on how to harm someone else and not herself.

"Got it and it's well hidden," Emily confirmed, lifting the side of her skirt slightly so Jenny could see the tiny holster wrapped around her thigh.

"That's my girl. Now, does your uniform fit okay because we had to order it online and…"

"Relax, Mommy. Everything is going to be fine. I'm used to the new school thingy. I've had three in the last year."

"I know; I know," Jenny said, placing the camera on the hall table so she could hug her daughter. "I promise this will be the last move for hopefully a long time."

"Good thing I like my uniform this time."

"Good thing," laughed Jenny. "Now, let's get going. Stanley's waiting for us. Say goodbye to Dad."

"Bye Daddy. I love you," Emily said, waving to the camera before Jenny shut it off and the two hurried off to meet Stanley at the car.

After dropping Emily off at school, Jenny no longer had a distraction from her nerves. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking and it had nothing to do with the numerous cups of coffee she'd spent her entire restless and sleepless night drinking. Today was her first official day as Director of NCIS – the first female of, not just NCIS but all federal armed agencies, as well as the youngest. But, while she was nervous as hell that she might screw this up with the whole world watching, what was really terrifying her out of her wits was today would also be her first time seeing Leroy Jethro Gibbs since leaving him in Paris.

She feared the anger she was sure he would be directing at her. She feared the words she knew he would throw at her. Accusations that their relationship obviously meant nothing to her, that her career mattered more to her than anything or anyone. Words of how he hated her and wanted nothing to do with her even if she was his new boss.

When she left it wasn't because she didn't love him. She loved Jethro enough to give up everything for him – for him, her and Emily to be a family – only she had doubted Jethro felt the same. He only told her he loved her once and he hadn't exactly been sober at the time. Not to mention, that was back when they were only partners, not lovers, so she assumed he meant it in jest.

When they finally crossed that invisible line, it started as a fling whenever they were in need. First in that hot stuffy attic in Marseille, then when Jethro's divorce with Diane became official, and then when Diane started dating Fornell, plus about a hundred times in that farmhouse in Serbia, oh and of course there was that one time in the Director's office when they both agreed that someone just had to do it.

Then Jethro met Stephanie, someone he could be with for more than just sex, but they still couldn't get enough of each other. Jethro became a sort of addiction to her – enough so that when they were on missions throughout Europe she allowed herself to go against her better judgment and be 'the other woman.'

She almost let her true feelings for him slip that time in the Czech Republic when she took a round to the thigh. Jethro fussed over her, practically waited on her hand and foot. He even went so far as to buy her a bell so if he didn't hear her, she wouldn't have to crutch around to find him. Decker and Ducky practically fainted when they came over to visit her and found Jethro in the kitchen, wearing and apron, and cooking the only thing he knew how to…pasta. After she recovered, he made love to her and for the first time it was slow and gentle, taking his sweet time. It was because of this that she cried out 'I lov…" before catching herself as she came.

When Jethro went to visit Stephanie back in the States one weekend and came back engaged, Jenny knew it would have to end. But then Jethro got shot in Positano and while that was hardly unusual, she was still as terrified as ever. After he finally got released from the hospital and she got him back to where their team was housed up, he practically attacked her and she just melted into him as always.

And finally there was Paris. They spent two years there undercover as a couple. Two years alone, in another world, putting their lives in each other's hands every day, and on top of it all the long nights. Some would say it was inevitable, but nothing was inevitable. Paris was where their heated affair became a true relationship. Paris was where they walked the streets hand and hand, never being afraid of being seen. Paris was where she finally told him she loved him and could express it freely anywhere and everywhere they went. Paris was where their daughter was conceived. And Paris was where she turned her back on them leaving him nothing but a 'Dear John' letter.

"Director?" Stanley called, drawing her from her thoughts. Dragging back to reality, she turned to notice Stanley had parked the car and opened her door without her even noticing. "We're here," he added amused.

"Right," she laughed stepping out. "Thank you, Stanley." She took her briefcase from him and took a deep breath before slipping her Director mask on and got ready to face the music.

"Signal is strong. We have a solid channel," an MTAC technician announced. Jenny watched the empty road on the screen with baited breath. This was her final mission as an agent, as well as her first as Director. The outcome would leave a mark on both records and she sure as well hoped it would be a good one.

"Target vehicle approaching." Her heart pounded as she watched the truck appear on the screen. "Acquiring target. We have a hard lock. Target confirmed. Engage." She watched the missile launch before locking onto its target. The explosion was silent on their end, but when the techs confirmed the target hit, relief flooded through her. A good end and a good beginning.

Her excitement was contagious as the others present stood up, shaking hands with each other as a means of congratulations. "Good job, everyone," Jenny announced remaining in her seat. Jethro was a few rows back, unaware of her presence and she wished to keep it that way for at least a few more moments.

Her composure was slipping quickly with just the thought of him being in the room. And that's when she was hit with what she feared the most…she was still head over heels in love with Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

Everyone filed out and she listened silently to former Director Morrow and Jethro arguing over Ari being the sniper or not before Morrow finally announced Jethro would no longer be his problem.

"He's your problem now, Director," Morrow told her as he left the room to give them privacy.

With one final deep breath, Jenny stood and turned to face the man who had stolen her heart, never giving it back. "Hello, Jethro."

One look…one look was all it took for everything to come flooding back to her and by the look on his face, he was reliving it all too. "Should we skip the 'you haven't changed a bit' bull?" she questioned trying to break the silence of the room. At least she had some warning. She couldn't imagine the surprise he must feel.

"Why start lying to each other now, Jen?" And with that one simple phrase and an image of a young girl running down the stairs in her new school uniform, she felt her mask slipping because she _was_ lying to him in a very big way.

"Any problems taking orders from me?" she asked, trying to push that though as far away as possible. She had her reasons for keeping Emily a secret and she needed to stick to that.

"As director or as a woman?"

Damn him! He could still get her riled up inside. "Either."

"It was six years ago. The past won't be a problem," he stated standing up. Almost seven years she wanted to correct, calculating she'd been a little over three months pregnant when she left.

"You were a damn good agent…especially undercover." He came to stand directly in front of her and she got her first look into those gorgeous blue eyes that belonged to her two favorite people in the world.

"Jethro."

"Madame Director." She felt her knees buckle slightly at how her title rolled off his tongue and she knew she would need to put a ban on calling her Madame or she'd be a puddle every time he said it.

And after one more moment of silence, what did Jethro do? He started trying to convince her of Ari's guilt. Rolling her eyes, she started to head toward the door, smiling inwardly at how he jumped to follow her, never halting in his efforts to convince her. "You have no physical evidence linking Ari to the shootings. No wonder agencies here and abroad have doubts," she concluded heading for the stairs. It was not unusual for him to be dead set on a suspect with no proof. And while he was usually correct – okay, as close to always correct as a person could get – she couldn't run her agency based on his damn gut!

"This Bastard already killed one of my people. He's trying to kill more. And I'll tell you something else. No suit with a tight sphincter in it is getting in my way and that includes you, Jen."

And now she had it! He officially once again succeeded in getting her temper riled up and this time he'd pay! "Special Agent Gibbs," she called, emphasizing his title in the best authoritative voice she could muster.

He turned around slowly, noticing the change, and ascended the few stairs to stand in front of her, but still allowed her the higher ground. "On the job, it is Director Shepard or ma'am."

"Okay. What about off the job," he whispered. To say she was thrown by the question would be an understatement. Anger, fury, hatred…that was what she expected to see when she confronted Jethro. What she never expected to see was the hurt and distant longing in his eyes. And she certainly never expected him to offer her a second chance.

And God, did she want that chance more than ever! She never left him because she didn't love him. She left him out of fear – fear that he would reject Emily. Him rejecting her, she could handle but she had been afraid of having to explain to her child that her father didn't want anything to do with her. Jethro was good with kids, great even, but she once overheard him tell someone he didn't want any of his own. Then there was the small problem of him being engaged to another woman, and while they considered themselves in a real relationship, it was still very much an affair. When it came down to it, she was the mistress who got knocked up…so she left.

But now he stood before her asking her for a chance to be together again and it was just like seven years ago when he asked her to come back to D.C. with him. Her entire being was screaming for her to say 'yes,' but her mouth chose to say 'no.' Only this time she had to do so in person. This time there was no writing her way out of it. "There won't be any 'off the job,' Agent Gibbs."

The worlds felt like dirt and she hated them the moment they were out. She could see it in his eyes that he knew that too. "That's too bad. I missed you, Jen."

"Don't make this difficult, Jethro," she all but begged, while somehow still managing to keep her voice from sounding as such. He understood all the same. _'We never needed words,'_ she reminded herself.

"Fair enough. It won't happen again," he conceded, though his eyes told her there was an unspoken 'for now' behind it.

He stepped aside to allow her to precede him. "Director."

She froze for a moment, knowing all she had to do was take it back and she'd have the family she so desperately wanted. Finally, she composed herself and followed his lead, stepping past him into Agent and Director mode. Here on the staircase in the middle of NCIS was hardly the place. "We can continue this conversation in private."

"I've gotta change my clothes. We can talk in my car."

_'Gotta? So this is where Emily's lack of grammar skills is coming from.'_ "Gibbs," she objected, not liking the idea of being alone in a car with him.

"Hey, I got a dead agent and a sniper on the loose. I do not have ten minutes to spare."

Before, she could object any further, Gibbs turned his attention to one of his agents. "Tony, where are we?"

"McGee and Abby are working firearms analysis. I'm matching…" he glanced up curious at Jenny, who rolled her eyes at his scrutiny. When Gibbs made no means of an introduction, he finished, "tire tracks to vehicles."

Gibbs nodded. "No one is to leave the building. McGee's on protection detail with Abby. I'll be back in an hour," he said heading off towards the elevator, leaving Jenny to hurry up behind him.

They didn't discuss their relationship or how things would be with her as director like Jenny hoped, but she was hardly surprised. Instead, he told her about his team and some other agents in the D.C. office. She learned they had just been talking with Agent Tony DiNozzo and that his curious glance was probably more along the lines of him checking her out and hoping she was single.

Next he told her about Agent Timothy McGee, the probationary officer on his team. She smiled when she learned he didn't call McGee "Probie" because she would always be his Probie. Before she could take that as a lead in to what she wanted to discuss, he'd moved onto the agency's forensic scientist, Abby Sciuto. Abby or Abs was the favorite and apparently full of energy from the half dozen Caf-Pows she drank a day. She also learned he purchased enough of them for her that he now had an account at the convenient store.

He told her about Ducky and how he still told stories that could go on for hours and how everyone still fell asleep, yet pretended to be really entertained at its conclusion. She already knew how Ducky was, though, because she kept in touch with him often. He was Emily's godfather, after all. So she simply sat back enjoying watching Jethro talk so freely and openly.

By the time he finished updating her on Ducky, they had arrived at his house. He ran upstairs to change without another word, so she decided to venture down to the basement where she knew Jethro spent the majority of his time. She smiled when she descended the stairs to find the skeleton of a boat taking up the majority of the space. Some things never change.

She ran her hands over the smooth wood, feeling for calluses. As she did so, her mind flashed back to nearly a decade ago when he managed to get her changed into and old NIS t-shirt of his and had her sanding his boat. "Always with the grain," she remembered him teaching her. He had come up behind her, pressing himself right up against her back, and placed his hands over hers to help her along. They hadn't lasted long before he tossed the sander to the side, discarded both their clothes, and taken her right there on his basement floor.

Snapping herself out of her memories before she let her mind wander any further, she sat herself down at his workbench and began fiddling with his tools, wondering who this boat would be named after. She hoped to God it wasn't her.

He came barreling down the basement stairs and she could see him send a quick glance to the very spot where her memory had just taken her. "Is this the same boat you were building six years ago?" she asked trying to draw him out of the memory before she relieved it once again.

"Nope."

"What happened to it?" She always wondered what he did with them after they were built.

"I burned her."

That…she was not expecting. "Why would you?" she started, but then it dawned on her. "You named it after an ex-wife," she said amused.

"Let's go."

"Which one?" she asked, trying hard not to laugh.

"You know damn well which one," he said annoyed. Good; she could still get him all riled up too. Of course, she knew, but he was 'gonna' say it out loud.

"Why didn't you change the name?"

"Because it wouldn't' matter. Every time I went out on her, I'd think of Diane." Ha! She had him.

"You could have sold it," she continued, enjoying their banter a little too much.

"And watched some other guy sail off on her?"

"You didn't care who sailed off on Diane." Oh yea, she was enjoying it way way too much. "Leroy Jethro Gibbs, you are a strange man," she stated, drawing out each word.

"Me? Ha!" he laughed. "You were a good agent, Jen."

"Were?" The friendly banter was gone and annoyance was on the rise…as usual with them.

"Yeah. Director's job is pure politics."

"I'm good at politics," she defended. "NCIS needs someone who can shake the money tree on the hill and work with sister agencies." And it was finally something stable and relatively safe for Emily, but she didn't dare voice that.

"Wait, you won't call a boat a 'she,' but it's 'sister agencies'?"

"I'm a schizoid libber. It comes from working with chauvinists like you," she said trying to fall back into their banter.

"I can't believe you gave up field work for rubber chicken dinners."

"I don't think they serve that at Palena," she joked, loving how much this bothered him.

"Never heard of it."

"Why would you? It isn't takeout."

"So which of the tight sphincters is taking you out to dinner? Please tell me it's not Fornell."

God, it most definitely was not Fornell! It was bad enough coming back to the States to learn Fornell and Diane had a daughter with the same name as her own. "CBS Early Show," she finally answered. "They want background before I go on TV."

Panic flashed across his face and he ran back down the stairs to her. "Jen. Jen, you can't do that."

"Excuse me?"

"Ari is a chauvinist. He is taking out the women I work with before me. "And there he goes again!" How could she get it through his head he had the wrong man?

"Jethro. People who should know don't believe Ari Haswari is the sniper," she explained, knowing if anyone would know it would be Ziva. "And you haven't provided any evidence to prove them wrong."

"Have you ever doubted me?" Did he have to ask that? That answer was far too complicated.

"Professionally? Never." Personally was a whole other matter she was starting to doubt they would ever discuss.

"Why are you doubting me now?" He asked as if sensing her thoughts drifting to how she told him she loved him and he never once did the same. How did he always know?

"I have to establish a working relationship with these people," she answered, hoping to shift gears back to their current predicament and not their past ones. She now realized they weren't ready for the latter yet.

"Who are you gonna side with, Jen? Them or me."

He always asked her this. When would he learn, she was always on his side. "Give me a tough question."

For a while the car ride was dead silent and you could cut the tension with a knife. Jethro was still fuming that she didn't take the danger of the situation seriously and Jenny was still fuming because he was fuming.

"Her name was Kate," he finally broke the silence threatening to swallow them both whole.

"What?" Jenny asked, shocked that he'd actually spoken.

"The final member of my team was Special Agent Caitlyn Todd. Before NCIS she was a highly trained secret service agent assigned to protecting the President. She also had top level training in profiling and she was the best."

"Jethro, I…"

"But none of that training mattered when a full metal jacket round slammed into her head from six hundred meters away."

"Jethro…" she tried once more, knowing where this was headed.

"Let me finish!" he growled. "Whether you believe this is Ari or not, this sniper is a chauvinist and he's damn good. Kate was dead before any of us even knew what was happening, let alone were able to do anything. He paused for a moment struggling to keep it together. She needed to hear this, needed to get it through her thick head. "I mean it when I say you were a good agent and, as much as I hate it, you are good at politics. You can talk yourself out of an interview Jen, but you can't talk yourself out of a bullet you won't even see coming. No matter how good you are."

Before she could say anything or even realize they were already parked in the NCIS parking garage, Jethro was out of the car and briskly walking towards the elevator. Jenny sat there for a moment stunned about what he said and even more stunned that he actually said it. When he originally talked about his team and he skipped over Kate, she assumed he did so on purpose. She figured he didn't want to discuss someone who meant a lot to him with her. That would show her not to break Gibbs' rule number three about not making assumptions. He obviously trusted her enough to discuss Kate so soon after her death. Maybe they weren't as bad off as she originally thought.

Thinking about everything he said, she had to wonder was she being reckless? After all she had a daughter who would be devastated if her mother did not come home safe every night. So why was she ignoring a possible threat? Was it because she truly believed there was no threat or was it because to this day she still felt she needed to prove herself to her mentor?

"You coming, Jen? I gotta lock the car," Jethro hollered across the garage.

"You never lock your house, but you're concerned about locking you car?" she laughed walking over to him.

"It's a guy thing, Jen," he joked before looking at her with concern. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," she stated simply and then stepped passed him into the elevator.

"Okay," he conceded joining her in the elevator. "You know where to find me, if you decided you want to answer that question truthfully."

She turned to him in shock just as the doors opened on their floor. He simply walked right out, a smirk on his face. How did he always know? Annoyed he caught her lie, yet again, she quickly hurried after him into the bullpen only to find Ziva waiting for her.

"Shalom, Jen," Ziva greeted.

"Shalom," she reciprocated, kissing each of Ziva's cheeks.

"Did I miss it?" Ziva asked referring to the mission Jen witnessed in MTAC only an hour ago.

"Yes, you did. But we didn't."

Ziva glanced over toward Gibbs and Tony, insuring they were deep in their own conversation before asking, "And how is my goddaughter?"

"She's wonderful, just started at her new school this morning. She's anxious to see you again, though. It's only been a few days and she already misses you terribly."

"I miss her very much, as well."

Noticing the boys staring, they walked over and Jen began the introductions. "Special Agent Gibbs. Ziva David, Mossad."

"Ziva," Ziva said shaking his hand. "Director Shepard has spoken often of you."

"Really," Gibbs smirked.

"Ziva and I worked antiterrorist ops since Nine Eleven," Jen tried to clarify but the smirk on his face told her she was failing. Ziva was so dead! "You saw one today in MTAC."

"That was yours?"

"I only inquired the Intel," she said before her phone went off. "Excuse me."

As Gibbs eyes followed Ziva, Jenny noticed Agent DiNozzo looking her up and down. "Yes, I really am the new NCIS Director."

He nodded, quietly whistling as she walked to sit at Kate's old desk, before he felt a whack to the back of his head. "Good to have you back, Boss."

Jenny watched with humor as Ziva and Gibbs bantered back and forth over Ari's guilt or innocence. She knew neither would be able to convince the other and that almost made it more fun to watch. Both had such valid points that Jenny found herself believing both sides.

The humor ended quickly when the two began arguing heatedly. When it got to a point where she feared they may try and kill each other, Jen leapt up to try and intervene. "Gibbs, even if you're right, we owe them proof," Jenny said trying to be the voice of reason to both sides. As Director, it was her job, but Jenny also had a bit of selfish reasoning too. Ziva and Jethro were not just extremely important to her and NCIS, but they were also possibly the two most important people to her daughter, other than herself. She did not want them hating one another.

"That's all we ask. Don't kill the wrong man," Jenny sighed, relieved to have convinced Ziva.

"Like Mossad did in Norway?" So obviously Gibbs did not take the compromise as kindly as Ziva.

"That mistake cost us dearly us dearly!" And there goes Ziva. So much for getting the two to like one another.

"Not as dearly as the Palestinian waiter you killed." Did he really have to be so difficult?"

"Ziva," Jenny interrupted before it could get any further. "Assure your deputy director that even though Ari Haswari is a suspect, no action will be taken unless we have evidentiary proof." Ziva nodded her acceptance, so Jenny turned back to Gibbs hoping to settle the issue once and for all. "Proof before action." Unfortunately for her, all Gibbs did was get up and walk away.

When her first day as Director finally ended, all Jenny wanted to do was go home, snuggle up with her daughter, and listen to Emily recount her first day at St. Mary's Elementary. Sadly that would still be a few hours away. Instead, she had to head over to Palena's and discuss politics over dinner with the people from CBS.

Originally, she had been looking forward to dinner. After all she was the first female director of a federal armed agency. That achievement should be noted. Plus Emily was super excited to watch her mommy on TV tomorrow morning. Emily had this whole plan to watch it with her video camera so that her father wouldn't miss it and she could watch it over and over again.

But Gibbs was getting to Jenny and now she just wanted dinner to be over and done with. So when she started down the stairs and saw Jethro sitting all alone in the bullpen, she expected an earful. Only he didn't even notice her presence. And that's when she noticed how sad and lost he looked and it shattered her heart.

"Jethro?" she called just to bring him out of it. "I know it's been a difficult day for both of us." _'In more ways than one,'_ she silently added

"That's what my DI used to say. Never believed him." Here she was trying to help and he was making jokes. Sighing, she turned to leave, but he called out to her. "Jen. Are you going to dinner with CBS?"

"I am."

"Don't do that interview." She stared at him for a long time. His eyes, the same as their daughters, looked so lost. She saw that look in Emily's eyes once, back in Cairo. In that moment, Emily looked like the spinning image of her father and here he was giving her the same look. So when Jethro looked up at her once more adding, "Please," she knew she could not refuse him.

"I'll see if I can delay it a few days."

"Good," he said smiling and his smile relaxed her somewhat. Still she knew she would be having nightmares of that look.

"Good night, Jethro."

"Night."

She glanced back at him once more before the elevator doors opened and the person inside distracted her. "Ducky! How nice to see you again."

"And you. Congratulations."

"Going home?"

He hesitated and Jenny couldn't help but have a strange feeling that something was off with him. "Uh…yes."

When the elevator doors closed and they were away from prying ears, Ducky distractedly mimicked Ziva's earlier question, "So how is my lovely goddaughter?"

"Emily's good. She loves the flowers you sent her as a welcome home present and can't wait for you to come to dinner this weekend."

"Ah, I am greatly looking forward to it as well. It has been far too long since we last saw each other," Ducky said distractedly as the elevator doors opened. "Enjoy your evening," he added before quickly hurrying off to his car.

"You…too?" Jenny said, basically to herself.

She barely had the door unlocked when she heard someone behind it cry, "Mommy!" She had to smile, knowing the girl had probably been sitting on the stairs waiting for her to arrive home. Jenny managed to get the door open before slammed into her and latched onto her waist. Laughing, Jenny attempted to walk a little further into the hall, with the young girl still attached to her leg. When that failed, she picked the girl up into her arms, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"How's my baby girl? Were you a good girl for Naomi?"

"Uh huh," Emily said, burying her head into Jenny's neck.

"Someone's tired," Jenny laughed, feeling her daughters breathing even out as she drifted to sleep in Jenny's arms.

Walking into the kitchen to find her housekeeper, Naomi, Jenny saw that Naomi was still cleaning up even with the late hour. "How was she?"

"Very well behaved, Senora. "

"Gracias for staying so late, Naomi. You can go home for the evening."

"De nada, Senora," Naomi said packing up.

After seeing Naomi out and insuring the door was locked, Jenny glanced down at the girl still sleeping in her arms. "Come on, baby girl. Let's get you to bed."

She started up the stairs, when Emily started to stir in her arms. "Mommy?"

"I'm right her, baby," Jenny answered, rubbing the girls back.

"Can I sleep with you?"

"Of course you can, sweetheart," she started to tell her, only to find Emily had fallen right back asleep. "Silly girl," Jenny laughed as she climbed the rest of the stairs, thankful to be done for the day and home with her baby girl.


	3. The Eye Twitch Giveaway

Chapter Three: The Eye Twitch Giveaway

**Present Day**

"You know if Gibbs were here, he would…" Gibbs heard as he stepped off the elevator. God, did DiNozzo ever stop?

"I would what, DiNozzo?" Gibbs smirked as Tony jumped in surprise. The kid never learned, even after all this time.

A flash of red from beside DiNozzo caught his attention and his heart leapt in his chest. For a moment, he was back in the '90s when a young, ambitious redhead worked on his team. How many times had he crossed a room back then, smiling as he watched her laughing at some joke Decker was telling or brushing off the passes Johnson was always making at her? He always loved to catch her doing the latter, cementing that she only had eyes for Gibbs himself.

But today it wasn't Jenny waiting for him and never would be again. This time it was her daughter – a daughter she didn't even trust him enough to tell him about. He wondered what it must be like for the young girl living without Jenny. For him, seven years passed and there still wasn't a day that went by he didn't think about Jenny. Jenny wormed her way into his heart. Even when they were nothing more than Director and Agent, she would still invade his thoughts, making herself impossible to forget. And with the sudden appearance of her daughter, it was becoming apparently obvious that Jenny had no plans to let herself fade from his memory – even from the grave.

"Oh, hey there Boss," Tony called. "You got to learn not to sneak up on people like that."

At Tony's acknowledgement, the 'flash of red' stepped out from behind DiNozzo, providing Gibbs with his first good look at the girl. Giving the girl a simple once over was enough for Gibbs to freeze in place. When McGee originally called him, his first guess was Tony had conned the younger agent into assisting him with some practical joke. On the other hand, McGee had matured over the years and had gotten better at standing up to Tony. It was due to the later that Gibbs' curiosity peaked enough to leave halfway through his lunch date to determine what crazy situation the boys managed to get themselves into this time.

What Gibbs did not expect was to come face to face with the spinning image of Jenny Shepard. "Um…hi," the girl said awkwardly, returning more closely to Tony's side under Gibbs scrutiny.

'_Oh great! She's attached herself to DiNozzo.'_ He stood there dumfounded at the girl who was slowly getting annoyed by his silence. Gibbs knew he should say something, anything, but the image threw him for a loop. He watched her cross her arms across her chest and raise a questioning eyebrow in such a Jenny fashion. Frankly it was the exact posture Jenny took on the first day he met her, straight down to the long red hair tied up in a ponytail. _'Come on Gibbs, you're great with kids. Pull yourself together!' _he tried to encourage himself, but when he actually spoke he felt like an idiot. "Uh…hey. I'm Special Agent Gibbs." Was that really the best he could come up with?

The girl rolled her eyes before breaking out in a smile. God, she even had her mother's facial expressions down. Moving away from Tony, she walked over to where Gibbs had frozen in place. "I know. I'm Emily Shepard," she introduced, holding her hand out to him. "It's good to finally meet you, Agent Gibbs."

"The pleasure is all mine," he said, taking her hand. She glanced up to look at him and flashed him a smile. It was then he finally got a good look at the one feature that differed from Jenny's…the girl's eyes. Instead of looking into Jenny's gorgeous green ones, Gibbs felt as if he were looking into a mirror. "Emily…" he started.

"She prefers Emma, Boss," DiNozzo announced looking quite proud of himself. Much to Gibbs' dismay, she tore her crystal blue eyes away from his identical ones and turned her attention to DiNozzo.

"Actually, I really do prefer Emily. Only Aunt Ziva is permitted to call me Emma."

"Why's that?" Tony asked and Gibbs smirked as he watched Tony's pride fade.

"I used to go to school with a girl who's actual name was Emma. Everyone used to get us mixed up."

"It used to drive Emma up the hall, so naturally I continued to call her that," Ziva added laughing.

"Ziva, it's up the…" Tony started to correct, but Gibbs cut him off.

"So you knew Jenny had a daughter?" Gibbs spat accusingly at her and she at least had the decency to looks sheepish.

"Yes, Gibbs, but I assure you I disliked the secrecy very much."

"Agent Gibbs, don't blame Ziva."

"Has she been staying with you?" He asked, temporarily ignoring the young girl.

"No."

"Where has she been staying then?" Ziva stayed quiet, but by the way she avoided his eyes, he knew he was getting closer to determining just who Emily really was. When she still didn't respond, he walked straight up to her and growled, "Where?"

"With Mike Franks in Mexico," Emily stated sternly, a flash of red-head temper in her eyes. The glare she sent him for harassing Ziva was enough to intimidate even him, as well as silence any angry outburst he could formulate over learning Mike also knew. When she saw he wasn't going to explode, she started to explain, "That's why I'm here. I want to move back to D.C. I was hoping you might be able to help with that. I need your signature, as the lead investigator on her case, to vouch that my mother is actually…dead." Her voice quivered on the last word, finally drawing his eyes from giving Ziva the Gibbs stare.

That's when her words sunk in. Jenny's daughter wanted his help with emancipation? Hell no! Her eyes aside, this was Jenny's daughter and he would not let her have to fend for herself. If she wanted to move back, then he would take care of her. He owed Jenny that much. But before that, he needed to know why she had his eyes and if he might possibly have even more responsibility for her. "How old are you?"

"Sixteen," she answered, without thinking and only after the word left her mouth did it register what she'd done.

Sixteen years? Oh God…Paris! He was standing in front of his daughter, his and Jenny's. His first reaction was to be pissed! How could Jenny not tell him? Then he realized exactly what Emily was here for and it got him even more riled up. His daughter was here asking for emancipation from him!

But as he looked into her eyes, his mood softened. He and Jenny created this beautiful young woman and somehow that thought sounded so right to him. He walked over to her and bent down to her eye level. "Who is your father?" he asked, needing to hear her say it. Say it so it could finally be real.

He saw her gulp and look pleadingly toward the other three agents, but he taught them well enough to know they wouldn't interfere. "I…I don't know. Mom never got a chance to tell me," she lied and he almost had to smile when he noticed her 'tell.'

"Your mother's right eye twitched when she lied…and so does yours."

Her eyes widened and she stuttered out, "You know about that?"

"Yep," he laughed. After a moment, he realized she might need some encouragement. He tilted her chin up to meet his eyes when he told her, "Emily, you have my eyes and you have no idea how happy that makes me. I love you."

Her eyes started to water and he wiped a stray tear away, as she whispered. "Hi, Dad."

With those two simple words, his heart fluttered and his own eyes started to tear up. Pulling her into a hug, she molded right into him, crying on his shoulder as he told her he loved her again.

"I love you too, Daddy," she said and he hugged her tighter. "But you may not love the fact that Tony is making a lot of money on this."

Reluctantly he let go, hollering, "DiNozzo!"

Tony yelped and froze midway through collecting money from McGee. "Sorry, Boss."

Before Gibbs could chastise Tony more, a familiar voice distracted him, much to Tony's relief. "Emily Ziva Shepard, look at how beautiful you have become."

"Ducky!" Emily lit up running over to where Ducky and Abby had just arrived. She quickly ran into his arms.

"Our phone calls are not enough, my dear. I must see you more often or pretty soon I won't even recognize you."

"Ducky's right, Emily. It has been too long."

"Abby," Emily laughed. "I saw you last month."

"Well, then you need to stop growing so fast," joked Abby pulling her into a bone crushing hug.

"Air, Abby! I need air!"

"Right," Abby laughed releasing her. "Did you get the present I sent?"

"Yes! I love the black lipstick," Emily said excitedly. "They don't have any in the stores near Mike's sorry excuse for a house."

Gibbs stood there in disbelief. First Mike and Ziva and now Ducky and Abby! Ducky was his best friend, for God sakes! "Alright, that's it! How many of you knew?" he screamed. Ziva, Ducky, Abby, and Tony all raised their hands guiltily.

"Tony?" everyone yelled at once.

Tony held up his hands defensively. "Well, I didn't _know_ know. I just…" He started to explain before figuring it'd be easiest to just focus on Emily. "You were asleep on Jenny's couch once when I went up to her office. She told me she was babysitting…obviously that wasn't the case."

Gibbs rolled his eyes before slapping DiNozzo on the back of the head.

"Thanks, Boss."

Before Gibbs could say anything else, he felt someone grab his hand and start dragging him away. "I think it's best if we continue this in private."

[][][][][][][][]

Everything was going completely wrong! All she wanted was to come, get her father to sign the stupid emancipation from, and leave before she lost her nerve and confessed everything to him. How hard was that?

Apparently excruciatingly hard because she hadn't been with Gibbs for more than ten minutes before he had her whole plan dissected, not to mention had determined he was her father.

Damn blue eyes! Damn eye twitch! And damn her for enjoying the idea of having a father! _'So much for in and out, Emily!'_

She knew getting his signature was basically out the window, so here she was dragging her father to the NCIS cafeteria. If her mother could see them now, Emily knew she'd be in hysterics. Thankfully, when they arrived at the cafeteria, the place was empty. "Alright, let me have it," she offered, ready to take on any anger or questions he had.

Instead he just stood there with that damn smirk on his face. "Okay, you don't want to talk? Then I will. No, I don't know the real reason why my mother left you in Paris or why she never told you about me. She did leave some things for you, so you may find your answer in one of those.

"Yes, people did know about me. Ziva worked with my mother since I was born. She and Ducky are my godparents. Abby met me when you were in the hospital one time and my mom stayed with you. My mom's security detail knew so that they were able to protect me too. And lastly Cynthia found out when my mother was kidnapped and Ziva and Ducky couldn't get away to pick me up from school without you realizing. Anything else I can help you with?"

He simply stood there smirking and steam was threatening to emerge from her ears. "What?" she questioned annoyed.

"Nothing. You know your mother was very good at ranting without taking the time to breathe too."

_'Oh…My…God!'_ Her mother _would_ fall in love with someone this annoying. "Do you have anything you want to say?"

"Yea," he said, gesturing for her to sit at a table. "I don't care about any of that stuff. Those issues are between me and everyone else. What I care about is what issues are between you and me."

"Issues like?"

"I don't know," Gibbs shrugged. "Maybe there aren't any. But let's start with why are you here?"

"Well…I," Emily began, but her father cut her off.

"I don't mean the fact that you want emancipation – which by the way, there is now way in hell I'm giving it to you. I mean why are you _here? _You obviously didn't plan on telling me I was your father, so why come all the way here? Why not just sign my name?"

Emily sat there stunned for a moment. Why was she here? Had she really believed she could trick her father into signing an emancipation agreement? The more she thought about it, the more stupid the idea sounded. Plus she was hardly disappointed to hear he wouldn't sign it. Getting to see her father, hug him, tell him the truth, hear him say he loved her…all that meant so much more to her than if she had managed to convince him to sign her away.

But in the back of her mind, she wondered if she could tell him all that. There was still that voice telling her not to get too close to him. How many times as a girl did she have to curl up with her mother who was crying form something Gibbs said or did? A part of her wondered, would her mother want this? After all she never told him about her. Maybe her mother wanted to keep her from getting hurt. And if that's what her mother wanted, Emily would do her best to keep one foot out the door.

"Forging your name would be illegal and I want to be an NCIS agent when I grow up," she decided on, hoping that might keep him at arm's length. Not a lie but it still left out enough truth that she knew he'd walk.

And it worked just as she suspected. He pushed his chair back and started to stand. "Alright then."

Only she didn't expect her heart to break as he started to walk away. "Wait," she called and he halted at her command. "I do want to be an NCIS agent and forging is illegal, but it's not why I'm here." He turned around at this, giving her the means to continue. "I came here because I wanted…no, I _needed_ to see you. Mom was all I really ever had. I mean sure, I had Ziva, Ducky, Abby, and Uncle Mike, but Mom was everything to me. Ever since…" she trailed off, tears starting to form, before she took a deep breath to continue. "Ever since she died, I've felt so alone."

And finally it was out in the open. She had finally admitted it out loud, but more importantly, she finally admitted it to herself. Uncle Mike had always known. It's why he never pushed, why he let her come around to things like holidays when she was ready – though that still had yet to happen. Leila used to try and get her to talk countless times and failed. Yet here she was confessing to a man she'd known for less than an hour. Maybe she did need her father after all.

Two strong arms wrapped around her shoulders and she had to smile because she hadn't even noticed him move across the room. This must be what Abby meant when she said he would always just appear out of nowhere. "I know the feeling, sweetheart," Gibbs said, holding the girl tight as she shook from her sobs. "But you are not alone anymore. I am going to be in your life from here on out. I promise you that."

Smiling she pulled back to plant a kiss on his cheek. "I'm really glad I decided to come."

"I'm so glad you came too. Should we go back before DiNozzo has the chance to make more bets?" he asked, holding his hand out to her.

"I have a funny feeling Tony's already had plenty of time for that, but why give him a chance to make more," Emily laughed, allowing him to help her up. Wrapping his arm around Emily, he kissed the top of her head as they ventured back to the bullpen.

[][][][][][][]

The group watched Emily drag Gibbs off in a remarkably similar way as Jenny would have. "Oh she is just like her mother, though she has a mean Gibbs stare! I mean did you see that, Probie?" Tony exclaimed the moment the two were out of ear shot.

"Honestly, Tony," Ziva chastised, shaking her head.

"I do have to agree with Tony on this one, Ziva. That look was scarier than even Gibbs," McGee pointed out, regretting it instantly when Tony started doing a victory dance.

"That's because it wasn't just a Gibbs stare," Abby said, a smile wide on her face.

"Oh yes, Abigail. It most certainly was more than a Gibbs stare," Ducky concurred with a smile.

"What are you two getting at?" Tony questioned curiously, excited everyone was agreeing with him.

"Tony, it was a really crazy awesome combination of the Gibbs stare and the Directors glare," Abby explained jumping up and down in excitement.

"Why would Emily have Vance's glare," McGee questioned, causing everyone to stare at him. "What?"

"She means Jenny, McGenious," Tony said, whacking McGee in the back of the head.

"She always has been a good mix of both her parents," Ducky explained. "While she may outwardly have Jennifer written all over her, Emily can be scarily like her father at times."

"Oh that is such an understatement! You guys remember that young boy Zack from that case nine years ago. Well, she is even more like Gibbs than he was!" Abby exclaimed excitedly, not even giving them time to think back to that case. She loved the little Gibblet!

"How much you want to bet she knows all the Gibbs rules?"

"Tony, now I think you're pushing it. Gibbs didn't even know who she was."

"Bite your tongue, Timmy," Abby scolded. "Emily is a perfect Gibblet and a Gibblet would know the rules!"  
"Not to mention, she's been raised by Jenny and Franks. Trust me, Probie, she knows the rules."

"It would be most logical that, at the very least, Franks would have begun to teach her, as Anthony believes."

"Ah-ha!" Tony cried in victory. "Take that, McProbie! Schooled by the senior field agent again!"

"Tony, just because you still have yet to take any offers to head your own team, does not mean Ziva and I are still probationary agents."

"For the last time, we are a _team_ and as long as I have more experience I will always be the senior…"

"Yea, citizen," mumbled Ziva.

"You would get that idiom right," groaned Tony.

The elevator dinged and they all dropped the conversation, assuming father and daughter would be returning. Only it wasn't Gibbs and Emily who emerged, but someone who crushed all their spirits. Someone who all of them thought was gone for good seven years ago, only to show up last year – the newly full bird Colonel Hollis Mann.

"Good afternoon, everyone," the Colonel greeted the team, oblivious to the animosity in the room.

"Hello, Colonel," Ducky greeted, trying to be the gentleman he generally was. After all, they didn't dislike the Colonel, only that she had prevented Jenny and Gibbs from reconnecting again before Jenny died.

"What's with the big family meeting?" asked the now extremely tan Colonel with a warm smile.

"Family meeting?" Ziva asked, faking confusion.

"I just mean the gangs all here," Hollis laughed, gesturing around.

"We're not all here," Tony answered quickly, only incriminating them further.

"Palmer," McGee offered up.

"Yes! Yes, Palmer!" Tony exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "Palmer is…?"

Gesturing to Ducky, Tony indicated for him to save the day. "Mr. Palmer is at a doctor's appointment."

"See…we're not all here."

"O-kay," Hollis conceded. "Is Gibbs around? He left something at the restaurant and I wanted to return it."

They all shared frantic glances with each other, knowing Gibbs should be the one to tell her he had a daughter. "Uh…who?" Tony asked stupidly.

"You know what? I'm going to go sit over here," she said gesturing to Gibbs' desk. "And let you guys continue whatever it is I interrupted and when you guys _'remember'_ who your boss is and where he is you can just let me know."

"Gibbs is um…conducting an interview," Ziva finally came up with.

"We would be more than happy to give him whatever he left, if you like," Tony offered, praying she'd take him up on it.

"That's okay," Hollis said, leaning back in Gibbs' chair. "I'll just wait for him to be done."

"Oh…_super_," groaned Tony quietly, so only McGee could hear.

"I'm sure Gibbs will appreciate it," McGee said quickly, hoping to cover if Hollis had overheard Tony.

The sound of laughing around the corner alerted the group to their Boss's return, causing them all to tense up. Gibbs rounded the corner into the bullpen, arm wrapped casually around his daughters shoulders, completely oblivious to the panic swelling up in his team. When he finally glanced up to see the blonde casually lounging in his office chair, he froze bringing Emily to a screeching halt with him.

"Must have been some interview," Hollis commented to the team, noticing how close the two seemed. Taking a closer look at the young girl, Hollis felt as if she were looking at a mini mirror image of a woman she'd known just shy of a decade ago.

"Uh oh! I have a bad feeling this is going to be another Gibbs' trainwreck," Tony whispered to Ziva and McGee.

"I thought you greatly enjoyed these trainwrecks," Ziva whispered, recalling the time Hollis, Jenny, and Gibbs' ex-wife Stephanie were in the same room. Tony had been like a child at Christmas.

"Normally, I do. Just not when they involve hurting a young girl, when she simply misses her mom."

"You're starting to like her, aren't you?" McGee laughed, watching Tony get flustered.

"She's starting to grow on me."

"Oh no… you are _really_ starting to like her," Ziva chimed in.

"Okay! I think she's interesting, alright. I mean she wasn't even the slightest bit intimidated by Gibbs. I've seen heavily armed soldiers fall prey to the Gibbs stare!"

"Oh boy, McGee. Next thing we know, he'll have her calling him Uncle Tony and will be cheering obnoxiously at her baseball games."

"The kid plays baseball?"

"She is quite good actually."

"Nice! Though, it would be even better if I could get her to start shooting hoops!" Tony exclaimed, excited their new addition might be an athlete too.

"Really '_Uncle'_ Tony? Basketball? I'm all of five-two," Emily objected, popping up beside him.

"Emma!" He cried, surprised she snuck up on him. Under her intense glare, he instantly corrected. "Ha-ha…I mean, Emily. You sure this is the first time you met Gibbs cause you sure got his appearing out of nowhere thing down pat."

"I hardly came from nowhere. My father went over there to talk to Blondie and told me to come hang out with my good buddy, Tony," she joked, lightly punching him in the arm, before turning more serious. "So who is she?" she asked glancing over to windows where her father and the unknown blonde woman were having a rather heated discussion.

Tony glanced nervously towards the rest of the group, his eyes pleading for assistance. When no one came to his aid, instead choosing to find the ground extremely interesting, he finally broke the news. "Her name is Colonel Hollis Mann," he said, hoping she didn't know who Hollis was.

"You mean the woman that caused my mom to get those blonde highlights? I thought she moved to Hawaii."

Tony's eyes widened in excitement from getting juicy gossip and for a moment he forgot that this probably was not the time or the place. "Wait a second…that's what the blonde highlights were about? Oh pay up, Probalicious!" He exclaimed, only to be wacked in the head by none other than Emily.

"While ordinarily I would be happy to provide you with all the gossip you've been waiting to get on my mother and Gibbs, right now you should probably be more concerned with preventing me from going all rule number nine on Colonel Mann and my father over there."

"Rule number nine?"

"Yes, rule number nine. Never go anywhere without a knife," she clarified, lifting up her pant leg up to reveal a small pocket knife in an ankle holster. "God, I thought you guys of all people would know my father's rules on how to be a good NCIS agent," she said shaking her head in surprise. She thought for sure her father would be teaching his agents the rules.

"So you know the Gibbs rules," McGee asked in surprise, hoping she only knew number nine. Otherwise he would owe Tony quite a bit of money by the end of this little get together.

"Oh, so you guys do know about the Gibbs rules." When they all nodded their heads, she finally answered McGee's question. "Cool because I do too. All fifty one of them, courteously of my mother and Uncle Mike."

"Ah ha, Timmy! You now owe all of us," Abby laughed, pointing out that everyone had agreed with Tony.

"Hey! Ziva never agreed," McGee argued.

"Only because she would have known, young Timothy," Ducky pointed out as if it were obvious. "Ziva spent the most time around Jenny and Emily, after all."

"How did you get through the airport with that?" Tony interrupted, musing that the metal detectors should have gone off.

"You've never been through Mexican airport security, have you?" Emily asked, amused. "Once Uncle Mike even managed to sneak a gun through. Though after about the third time, they started to catch on. I'm telling you one of these days he's going to end up on the no fly li…st," she managed to finish, stuttering when she noticed Hollis running her hand up Gibbs' arm affectionately.

Hurt flashed lightly in Emily's eyes before the anger took over, but it stayed long enough for the team to take notice. When she turned back to the group, she tried to mask both emotions. "Um…" she struggled, pretending to look at her watch. "Look I have to go. My flight back to Mexico leaves soon."

"You're leaving so soon," Abby whined, disappointed she wouldn't get to hang out with her favorite Gibblet.

"Sorry, Abby. I didn't want to be too jetlagged for school on Monday. Mis professores y professoras would not be very happy if I fell asleep in my classes," Emily apologized, giving her a huge hug, doing the same to Ducky and Ziva right afterwards.

She then turned back to McGee and Tony. "It was really great to meet both of you," she said reaching out to shake McGee's hand. "My mother always said you were the best computer tech NCIS had, so make sure you don't let these guys take advantage of you, Agent McGee."

A little taken aback at Emily's recollection of the Director's opinion of him, McGee just managed to shake her hand and stutter out, "Good to meet you too and I won't."

Emily then turned and hugged Tony, rising on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his cheek. "I wouldn't object if you did fly down to cheer at my games, _Uncle_ Tony," she joked. Giving them all one last glance, she pivoted back towards her father, the anger rising once more, and stormed off to grab her bag from Tony's desk before heading for the elevator.

[][][][][][]

When she stepped of the elevator and saw the team plus Abby and Ducky standing there watching her, she knew she had interrupted something. Walking over to them, she couldn't help but notice the obvious tension her appearance was causing. She would have been a fool if she didn't see it. They had all been this way since she moved back to D.C. just over a year ago. She recognized their reaction from when she first met them all eight years ago. Eventually they all started to warm up to her…at least a little bit. Gibbs had explained to her that the group was tight nit and took a while to adjust to strangers, but after eight years they were hardly strangers now.

"What's with the family meeting?" she joked, as a means of a peace offering. Of course, she picked up on their nervous glances about and naturally she was hardly being fooled by the teams stalling her questions of where Gibbs was. Eventually Ziva told her Gibbs was conducting an interview, but Hollis was hardly stupid enough to miss that the woman was holding something back – that they were all holding something back.

Hollis had to bite back a laugh at how each and every one of them gulped nervously as she made herself comfortable in Gibbs' chair, claiming she would wait for him to return. Gibbs had left in the middle of their lunch date in a hurry without any explanation and had forgotten his cell phone on the table. Taking it as an opportunity to see what was so important for him to rush off when he agreed to try and make time for them this time around, Hollis decided to pop in and return it.

A quiet laughter drew her attention away from observing the team's strange behavior and finally her lover rounded the corner, with an arm wrapped around…a teenage girl? Somehow Hollis doubted Gibbs had been interviewing a suspect or even a witness. "Must have some interview," Hollis said, calling them out on their so called bluff.

Hollis watched as Gibbs finally drew his attention from whatever story the young girl had been telling him and noticed her sitting in her seat. "Why don't you go talk to DiNozzo and the others," she overheard Gibbs instruct the girl. The red hair should have screamed out at her, but it was in fact the way the girl carried herself that reminded her of an older red head from years back. She walked proud and strong, giving her the appearance of being much taller than she really was, with a slight smirk on her face at whatever she overheard Agent DiNozzo saying.

Her observations were cut short once more by a hand coming to rest in front of her. "Come with me," Gibbs ordered and she disliked the tone in his voice. Deciding to pick her battles, she took his hand and allowed him to lead her over to the windows, out of ear shot of the team.

"I thought I told you I needed to leave to work on a break in the case," he growled and now she really did not like his tone.

"I was simple returning this," she defended, holding up his cell phone. "I thought you might need it."

"You should have called me here at NCIS," he argued. "I told you I was busy. You can't just drop in here unannounced."

"Yes I can see how wrapped up you are in this case," she snapped, nodding towards the girl in the bullpen. "Who is she, Jethro? And don't tell me she's just a witness because even if she is, she's still obviously a hell of a lot more than that to you."

"She's just a girl who misses her mom," he said solemnly, the anger fading from his voice. _'Yea…just a girl he literally dropped his lunch and ran here for.'_

Hearing the tone of his voice change drastically, Hollis ran a comforting hand up his arm, affectionately. "Hey," she whispered, trying to draw his eyes back from the ground to her own. "Talk to me, Jethro. I came back so we could give this relationship a real try this time around and part of that was your agreement to open up more. No secrets."

"You came back a year ago because you missed the thrill the job gave you. Retirement just wasn't suiting you. It wasn't until recently we chose to give this another go and I did not say no secrets, you did."

"And I was under the impression you agreed with that. After all, I believe that was one of the terms and conditions of us rekindling our romance."

"Well, that is exactly why I have a rule about not making assumptions."

As much as she would have loved to retort that, she never got the opportunity because just as she opened her mouth, the young girl who'd been with Jethro earlier practically sprinted by them towards the elevator. "Where do you think you're going, young lady?" Jethro bellowed, obviously upset to see the girl running off.

When the girl whipped around, Hollis was taken aback by the fierce anger in the glare the girl was throwing _both_ of them. "First of all, do NOT call me young lady," the girl spat and the anger lacing her voice actually scared Hollis. "Second of all, I have a plane to catch and trust me when I say, the last thing I want to do is miss it."

Hollis glanced over to Jethro, to see if he was as shocked at the girl's outburst as she was, only to find this gut-wrenching hurt in his eyes. "You're going back to Mexico," he practically whispered, defeated. What was going on here?

"Well, I hardly have any place else to go, seeing as you _burned_ my house down!" The girl screamed, turning straight back around to head for the elevator.

Jethro took a few steps forward, arguing, "You can't leave."

As she waited for the elevator, the girl glanced back at him once more, only this time the anger had evaporated and Hollis saw for the first time that the girl was definitely missing something, which according to Jethro was her mother. "You may be my father, but you are not my legal guardian." The elevator dinged and as she stepped in she took one final look around the bullpen, tears starting to form before her eyes once again hardened over. "Which means legally I don't have to listen to you," she said just before the elevator doors slammed shut and she disappeared, leaving a wounded Gibbs and a shocked team in her wake.

After a moment of disbelief, something inside Gibbs seemed to reawaken and he twisted sharply towards his team who were all watching him cautiously. "What are you all looking at? Ziva, tail her and by that I mean insure she gets to the airport and on her plane safely." With a simple nod, Ziva quickly grabbed her bag and hurried off to catch the elevator.

Hollis desperately wanted to say something, demand Jethro tell her what was going on, but his attention was still one hundred percent on giving his team orders. "McGee, get me a ticket on the next available flight to Mexico and that flight damn well better be today. Claim it's official NCIS business if you have to."

"On it, Boss," McGee responded, already dialing the airport.

"What about me?" Tony asked, eager to help.

"Find wherever the hell you decided to store my go bag!"

"Right, Boss," Tony nodded and Hollis could tell by the look on his face that he didn't have a clue where that was.

As Tony started to tear apart the bullpen and the surrounding area for the missing bag, Gibbs walked over to his desk and fell defeated into his chair. "Ducky, Abs, you guys want to help me figure out what went so horribly wrong."

When they didn't answer, he looked up to see them both giving him knowing looks and even Hollis could tell what the girl outburst had been about. "Well, yea I know that," Gibbs said responding to their looks. "But…she wouldn't even let me talk it out with her."

"Well, you see my silver fox, the second mistake you made was calling her young lady," Abby explained.

"Okay…so she doesn't like to be called young lady?"

"Jennifer would often call her young lady. I'd say hearing someone call her that probably just brought up some bittersweet memories."

"Jennifer? As in Jenny Shepard?" Hollis asked, but the group was too caught up in their own conversation to notice she'd asked anything. She had always known there was something between those two. Originally she believed if she could get the two to just admit it, she would be happy and could simply continue on knowing in the end he had chosen her over Jenny. However, hearing it now, her suspicions finally confirmed, made her anything but happy because she now realized exactly what she was to Jethro…a replacement, a way to forget the two women he truly loved. What bothered her the most was that the team had known that all along and she had ignored their observations. When they had first met, they all pegged her as the future ex-wife number four because they recognized the way Gibbs interacted with her. After all they, or at least Tony, had seen it three times before.

"I really screwed this up didn't I," she heard Jethro say to Ducky and Abby, drawing her attention back to what seemed to be the only way she would learn anything.

"It's not so much what you did, Jethro, as _when_ you did it," Ducky explained.

"Yea, Gibbs. That's why I sent her black lipstick. She likes to wear it in times of mourning."

"Times of mourning?"

"Um…yea," Abby began looking uncomfortable. "Yesterday was…" she trailed off looking to Ducky for help.

"May 20th Boss," Tony finally answered, popping up from behind one of the bullpen's cubical walls.

"The anniversary of Jenny's death? Why didn't anyone tell me?" he asked angrily, more at himself for forgetting than anything else.

"Well, we were going to ask if you wanted to come to the bar with all of us like we do every year, but when you said we needed to hurry and finish our reports because you had plans for the night, we thought you might be trying to…move on," Tony said, trying to inconspicuously nod towards Hollis.

"We thought if that was the case, reminding you might not be the best idea," Abby finished, hoping to take some of the blame off Tony, who smiled gratefully at her.

"I wasn't trying to move on…I just…we've been working nonstop. God, I haven't seen a calendar in days. How could I have let myself forget?" He screamed the last part, slamming his computer monitor, causing everyone to jump. Hollis, on the other hand, was less concerned about him forgetting than she was about him not trying to move on. He really was just using her to try and keep the memories of Jenny at bay!

"Jethro, we need to talk," Hollis demanded in a tone that said she would not allow herself to be ignored any longer.

Silently he stood up and led her over to the windows, where she made sure to ignore the haunted look in his eyes, so that she could really let him have it. "I thought you told me Kelly was…"

"She is," he said shortly, not happy that she brought up his other daughter.

"So you just happen to have another daughter you failed to tell me about."

"No…" he started to explain, but she caught him off.

"No? Jethro, she's a teenager! I may have been retired for a few years, but I can still do math and we have known each other for nine years or so, which means you were keeping her a secret from me since the day we met."

"Her name is Emily Shepard and I am just as angry and surprised as you are because I only found out about her for the first time, TODAY!"

Hollis opened her mouth to argue back, but then his words finally sunk in. "Wait a second…today?"

Before Jethro could say anything further, McGee beckoned him back into the bullpen. "Boss!"

"Yea, McGee?"

"I managed to get you on the Redeye to Mexico tonight."

"Gracias, Elflord," Gibbs thanked before turning to find where DiNozzo went off to. "DiNozzo, what are you doing!" he chastised, when he finally found him.

"Looking for your go bag, Boss."

"Well, I think we both can be pretty damn sure it's not in Ziva's desk drawers."

"Right. Sorry, Boss." Tony said sheepishly before an idea hit him. "The Truck!" he cried excitedly, accidently banging his head on the underside of Ziva's desk.

"What?"

"I remember now! I cleared a space in the truck for our go bags."

"Good job, DiNozzo," Gibbs said grabbing his things from his desk. "Let's go," he ordered, heading for the elevator with the rest of team wishing him luck. As Hollis watched the elevator doors shut, she had to wonder if the door was also shutting on their relationship once and for all.

On the catwalk above, a loner took in the whole scene happening in the bullpen below. _'So Jennifer Shepard has a daughter…that is going to complicate things.'_

Authors Note: Thanks so much for all your reviews. They help keep me motivated! I promise Hollis won't be around much longer for those of you who dislike her as much as I do. I simply needed someone to provide some tension and what character aggravated us Jibbs fans more than Colonel Mann (Vance not included of course!).


	4. I Have A Plan, Jen

Chapter Four: I Have a Plan

_Authors Note: Sorry for not updating last week. I started make chapter four really long, doing up to like the middle of season three, only to realize there is way more 'present day' material than I originally thought there would be. Good news is that means I already have most of chapter six written so I'll probably post both chapters five and six up next week to make up for keeping you guys waiting._

_As always, thank you for the reviews and for reading! I hope you enjoy! _

**September 2005 cont…**

Something had to be terribly wrong when carrying her damn briefcase up the stairs felt more strenuous than carrying her sleeping six year old daughter. It was only her first day for crying out loud. When she finally made it to her bedroom, she, without thinking, quickly dropped the bag to the ground with a loud thud. Cringing at how the sound echoed through the quiet room, Jenny glanced over to see that the sleeping child resting comfortably in her bed hadn't stirred in the slightest. Not for the first time was she thankful Emily had inherited Jethro's tendency for heavy sleeping.

Digging her glasses and a number of reports out of her briefcase, Jenny settled into bed beside her daughter, using the young girl's comforting presence as motivation to get at least a few reports completed before bed. She had been Director for all of one day and she couldn't believe how many mission reports had wound up in her inbox, much to her dismay. As an agent, she dreaded writing her mission reports, so she could already tell reading through dozens of them a day was sure to be hell.

Running her hands soothingly through her daughter's long red hair, she braved the first in a rather large pile. She made it through about five when her eyes started to glaze over. Glancing over at Emily, seemingly so peaceful in her sleep, Jenny smiled contently at the beautiful creation she and Jethro made mumbling in her sleep. The girl never stopped talking, even when sleeping. Hell, she basically came out of the womb gabbing away. Not that Jenny would have it any other way. "We did good, Jethro," she whispered to the silent room, wishing for the upmost time that he was lying there, arm around her shoulders, admiring their daughter with her.

Shaking off the haunting images of a life she'd never have, she picked up another report, groaning when she saw it was Agent Stackhouse's. Recalling Morrow telling her he needed a dictionary to get through the Shakespeare enthusiast's reports, she tossed it to the side, officially creating a 'for later' pile. Just as she reached for another report, the loud ringing of her phone screeched through the room. "Crap!" she cried, fumbling to grab the phone before it could wake the young girl. "Shepard," she answered, noticing Emily was still dead to the world. _'How on Earth does she do that?'_

"I need a partner for the night. You up for it?" Her heart literally stopped when those words rang through her phone. Her first fleeting thought was of a steamy hot night in the city of love where two warm bodies performed a dance that unknowingly nine months later created the beautiful little carrot-top beside her. Funny how that memory seemed to keep popping up today. Her second thought took off from there, as she thought, _'Oh hell no! One labor was excruciatingly painful enough. I certainly do not need to go through another one. Plus Ziva will probably kill me if I break her hand again.'_ But how much did she so desperately want to simply say yes. She even went so far as to mentally plan out how to carefully get Emily to her own room and…

No! She couldn't do this. If there's one thing she knew about her and Jethro, it was that, at least for her, it could never simply be just one night. He was her addiction, the one she craved beyond anything else. Once she let him back in, she would literally need him as much as she needed oxygen to survive. And yet, they still were boss and subordinate, just as they always were and she knew he would eventually find someone else who could be more than that. While she could handle Jethro finding another 'Stephanie' to have a real relationship with in addition to their forbidden one, Jenny simply could not invite him into Emily's life if he didn't intend to be all in. She owed her daughter a full time father, so before she selfishly crossed that invisible line with Jethro, she needed to insure his desire not to have children of his own wouldn't drive him away a few months in.

"Jen?" his voice called, drawing her out of her inward debate.

"Jethro, don't you know any other women?" Oh God, she so wanted to just give in and she wanted even more to hear him say there would never be any other women.

"None that I can call for back up." Her heart sank, as she closed her eyes, sighing. How dare he play with her like that! And what was he thinking calling her? She was the Director of NCIS, not some probie he could order around at his every waking whim anymore. "You didn't think I meant…?" He started to ask and she could hear the smirk on his face through the line. Damn him!

"That's what you have a whole team of agents for," she said, pulling her glasses off in annoyance. Yes, he may have gotten her hopes up for a minute, but she'd be damned if she let him know that.

"Well, McGee's on protection detail with Abby, DiNozzo's tailing Ziva, and since I lost…"

Whoa! Whoa! Back up a second! "DiNozzo's what?" She could not believe it. She asked Ziva here personally and nowhere in that agreement did it say anything about Jenny's ex-lover putting a tail on her. Ziva was so going to kill her because there was no way in hell Ziva wouldn't pick up on someone following her. It was one of the first things Mossad agents were trained to do.

"He's tailing Zee-vah," he reiterated. Great! She would be buying Ziva dinner for a month to make up for this.

"Well, where are you?" God, she could not believe she was caving to him…again.

"Outside." _'What?'_ she mentally screamed, hurrying out of bed and over to the window. Drawing the curtain, sure enough, there he was leaning up against his car waving to her. And as she hung up the phone smiling, it suddenly hit her just how in deep she truly was. She could try and build up these barriers all she wanted, but in the end they would never be strong enough to resist him.

Jenny quickly threw on the first thing she could find and grabbed an elastic to tie her hair up on her way to wherever the hell they were going. After insuring she had her badge and gun, she pulled out her cell and dialed her security detail.

"Agent Montgomery," a voice answered.

"Agent Montgomery, it's Director Shepard."

"Director!" the man's voice cried in a dead panic. "Is everything alright, ma'am. We haven't seen anything out here other than Agent Gibbs but…"

"No, everything's just fine. Agent Gibbs and I need to go follow up a lead and while ordinarily I'd be comfortable with the two of you outside, Emily's asleep and I'm afraid if she wakes up for some reason and no one's here she might panic. Would one of you mind coming in here for a little while? You don't actually have to sit with her. You can even watch TV if you want. I just…"

"I'd be happy to ma'am."

"Thank you. Now, she's a deep sleeper, so she probably won't wake up. It's more of a precaution…"

"Not a problem, ma'am. I'll head in as soon as you and Agent Gibbs leave." She smiled at his proposal. It had only been two days and they'd already grasped the art of keeping secrets. Thanking him once more, she hung up and shut the bedroom light off. On her way out she kissed her daughter's forehead, whispering, "I'll be back soon, baby girl," before heading down to meet Jethro.

He stood there, arms across his chest, still leaning causally against the hood of his car. Watching as he sized her up and down, drinking in every curve, she added an extra sway to her hips knowing it'd drive him crazy. And it most certainly did. His eyes followed each sway as she drew near. "You didn't have to change, Jen," he smirked.

She stopped short for a moment. God he would be the death of her! Recovering, she brushed passed him to head for the passenger's side. "You wish."

He followed her, making sure to get there fast enough to open the door for her. Leaning over the open door, he whispered, "Yea, I most certainly do," in her ear. His warm breath tickled her neck, sending shivers down her spine. Yep, she was in for a boat load of trouble tonight.

[][][][][][]

Spending every other night scanning a street for potential threats was not what Agent Montgomery expected to be doing with all his years of experience as an NCIS agent. Yes being trusted to protect the Director was an honor. But it would be more of an honor during the day. Instead, he and his partner, Agent Matthew Davis, would relieve the afternoon shift and left when Stanley arrived in the morning. They never even got to see the Director.

A hand slapped his shoulder causing him to jump out of his thoughts. "Dude, check it out," Davis said pointing to a car driving past to park across from the Director's house. Perhaps he'd spoken too soon in assuming the night shift would be boring.

"Wait…is that Gibbs?" Montgomery asked, watching the man step out of the car.

Davis, whose hand instantly flew to his gun, relaxed slightly after recognizing his fellow agent as not a potential threat to the Director. At least not physically, anyway. Montgomery watched Davis' face light up at the sight of Gibbs and felt the overwhelming urge to smack his friend. "See, dude! I told ya there was somethin between those two!" Davis cried, practically jumping out of the driver's seat in excitement.

"Davis, how many times do I have to tell you, just because she's a red head does not mean anything. You lasted all of one week on Agent Gibbs' team. That does not make you an expert."

"Montgomery, we've worked together for how long? You don't see me waving to you from outside your bedroom window."

"Okay…all that proves is that they've known each other longer than we have. Maybe the standing outside my window thing will come a few years down the road," he joked.

"Don't hold your breath, Montgomery." He chuckled at Davis' annoyance. It wasn't that Montgomery didn't think the man had a point. Frankly, if he were honest with himself, he did indeed agree with Davis' observations. He just didn't think here in the car with the two individuals in question nearby was the best location for this discussion. The Director would have their heads if she ever found out and Montgomery didn't even want to think about what Gibbs would do.

"They were partners, ya know?" Davis pointed out. Oh, the man did not give up!

"Yea so? We've partners."

"And why are we partners?" Crap! Davis had him cornered now. Years back, Montgomery had been partnered with a woman. Against his better judgment he'd fallen for her only to screw it up.

"My case aside, not every male-female partnership results in sex," Montgomery stated knowing many agents who never crossed the line.

"Yea, 'cause either one or both are married."

Before Montgomery could chastise his partner more, his cell rang. He gulped hard when he heard the Director's voice on the other end and he started sweating nervously, fearing she somehow knew exactly what they'd just been discussing. Instead, she simply wanted to know if he or Davis could watch her daughter while she and Gibbs followed up on a lead. Knowing Davis would take the opportunity to snoop around the Director's house for more proof, Montgomery volunteered for the task. After all, hanging out in a house with food, a bathroom, and TV was better than staring at a lifeless street for the next few hours.

"What was that about?" Davis asked anxiously, having already determined it had been the Director calling.

"Looks like Gibbs and the Director have a lead on Kate Todd's killer, so I'm on Emily duty."

"Following a lead my ass! They're probably goin to…wait! The Director's trusting _you_ with her and Gibbs' kid?" Davis asked in disbelief.

Rolling his eyes, Montgomery pointed out for the umpteenth time, "Davis, you have no proof that Emily is…"

"She has his eyes!"

"I'm sure your wife would be interested to know, you've stared at another man's eyes long enough to have them committed to memory."

"Oh go babysit, you asshole! And don't forget to stay on channel two," Davis ordered holding up his walkie-talkie.

Once Gibbs car had safely turned off the street, Montgomery hustled across the way to the Director's townhouse and let himself in. Figuring it best to insure the young girl was still in fact asleep, he quietly climbed the stairs only to find the girl's bedroom empty. Noting no one had been in the bathroom when he walked by, Montgomery started to panic. "Davis, Emily's not in her room," he squeaked nervously over the walkie-talkie.

"Dude, will you relax. Emily's six and at that age they often like to sleep in their parents' room."

"Right," Montgomery nodded, starting to relax slightly. "What do I do if she's awake and wants her mom?"

"You tell her the Director will be back soon," Davis said as if it were obvious.

"Oh yea 'cause you have so much experience at this."

"This coming from the man who thinks she's going to wake up and throw a temper tantrum 'cause her mother's out. Emily is six _years_ old, not six months, so if you calmly explain that the Director is out with Gibbs and will be back soon, she may be sad but will understand. And for the record, I have three younger siblings and a baby on the way."

"Sorry. Guess I'm just a bit nervous. I mean this is the Director's kid."

"Exactly, so she's already used to this kind of stuff. Now, go check on Emily and while you're at it see if the Director's got any photos of her and Gibbs."

"I am not going to snoop around the Directors house! Now go to radio silence to I give the clear. I don't want Emily waking up if she's still asleep."

Quietly peaking into the master bedroom, Montgomery saw the girl was snuggled up in her mother's bed still out cold. Smiling at how peaceful she looked with her head buried in a stuffed Eeyore and her tiny hand gripping a pink blanket that was hanging off the bed. Tiptoeing over to her, he managed to wiggle the blanket free from her grasp and tucked it over her. Montgomery may not know much about kids but he did know enough that if the blanket fell to the floor in her sleep, Emily would not be happy when she woke and found her blanket was 'missing.' He supposed, having met her, Emily would be smart enough to realize it was only on the floor, but he was not taking any chances while he was in charge.

With Emily taken care of, Montgomery headed back downstairs to wait in the living room. He was about to turn on the TV when he noticed the boxes still waiting to be unpacked. The top one was open and Montgomery couldn't believe what he was about to do. Pulling back the flaps, he found several framed photographs sitting at the top. He grabbed the top one, smiling at the sight of the Director with her arms wrapped securely around her daughter, looking more relaxed than when he met her yesterday. He found a second one of the Director and a younger woman, Israeli by the looks of it, holding what must have been Emily as a baby. But it was the third that had him pulling out his walkie-talkie. "Davis…DiNozzo wouldn't happen to have started a pool on this yet, would he?" He asked looking at the image of Director Shepard and Gibbs holding each other intimately under the Eiffel Tower. What really shocked him though was when holding the first photo next to the third, there was no question who Emily Shepard's father was.

[][][][][][]

She couldn't believe she allowed him to talk her into this. This whole situation screamed 'bad idea' and yet here she was letting Jethro talk her into his whole kill Ari mission against her better judgment. But what worried her was the last time she'd been alone on a stakeout with Jethro, things happened and she wasn't entirely sure she would have it in her to resist him if he wanted a repeat performance of six years ago.

Tying her hair up, Jenny tried to keep their conversation on professional topics to prevent being pulled into personal ones. "What are the chances that Ari is still at his house?" God, she still could not believe she was giving into him!

"Zero." Oh super! So he was just wasting her time, after all. She should simply demand he take her back home before Montgomery had himself a panic attack. She knew he had no experience with kids and hoped he let Davis handle things. "Ducky was a diversion so your friend Ziva could pass cash and documents to him."

Oh my God! If he and Ziva butted heads one more time, she couldn't be held accountable for her actions. "Ziva's a control officer doing her job. You'd do the same if the roles were reversed." And she knew for a fact that he most certainly would for any member of his team.

"She's using you, Jen."

"And I'm using her," she countered, while mentally adding, _'for a babysitter.'_ Instead of voicing that though, she went with, "A half dozen Hamas suicide bombers will not be blowing up our boys in Iraq because of Ziva."

"She's Metsada, isn't she."

"The Mossad codename for that division is Komemiute."

"Whatever they name it, they specialize in assassinations."

Oh he's one to talk! He was a sniper for pete sakes, not to mention, one of their undercover operations involved assassinating a Russian couple. "Excuse me. Weren't you a marine sniper?"  
"If I have to go through your friend to get to Ari, I will," he said, ignoring her.

"Ziva knows that." Hell, Jenny was pretty sure the whole agency knew that. Jethro had most certainly made his intentions clear.

"You really do like her."

_'No, I just brought her all the way out here, stuck my neck out for her, and defended her about a million times in the past minute for the hell of it!'_ "She's damn good," Jenny assured him before quietly adding, "And I owe her. She saved my life in Cairo two years ago." Not just her life either, but Emily's as well.

Two weeks that bastard had her daughter! To this day, Jenny still didn't know the full story about what happened, but she thought for sure he was going to kill her. Jenny would never forget that hollow, dark, sickening feeling. It was a feeling that still haunted her whenever Emily was out of her sight, no matter how trustworthy the person caring for her was. If it hadn't been for Ziva, Jenny doubted she and Emily would be alive right now and for that she would forever remain in Ziva's debt.

She could feel Jethro's eyes on her, knew he desperately wanted to ask, but she kept her eyes trained on the road ahead. She couldn't talk about it, couldn't go down that road again. Even if she left the part about Emily out of her verbal recollection to him, her mind would instantly jump there. She just couldn't go there, not at the risk of completely breaking down in front of him.

So instead, they sat in silence until she thought she might choke on the tension. If this was what working with Jethro would be like for the next God knows how many years, she predicted they would either kill one another or end up releasing the tension right on her desk or worse…that damn elevator!

Allowing Jethro to drag her out tonight had been a bad idea. Hell, being alone with Jethro anywhere, for any length of time, was a bad idea. What she should have done was told Jethro off and stayed home with her daughter who's mere presence did wonders for Jenny's stress level. But instead, she gave into Jethro and was now sitting here worried sick about what could be going on at home.

Emily may be heavy sleeper but what if she woke up and Jenny wasn't there? It was only the girl's second night in a new place and she'd left her basically alone if Montgomery decided to be the one to keep vigil over her. What if Emily had a nightmare of Cairo? She had already asked to sleep with Jenny for the night, which was never a good sign. Emily was as independent as six year olds come and smart too, already a grade ahead. She rarely ever had difficulty spending the night in her own room.

As an image of her daughter waking up looking for her and not being able to find her crossed Jenny's mind, she mentally cursed her decision to come. She was Director for God sakes. That was supposed to mean she could be at home with her daughter most nights, not leaving her in someone else's care while she staked out a house that their suspect probably abandoned long ago! "I can't believe this," she whispered. Realizing she broke the silence when Jethro turned to look at her, she added, "I've been a director less than twenty four hours and I'm back on the street."

"It's great, isn't it?" he asked trying to bait her.

"No, Jethro. It isn't," she corrected. No the sinking feeling in her stomach and fleeting thoughts of worry she got whenever she was away from her daughter were not great. It's the reason she gave up field work and became Director. Her daughter needed to come above her thrill of the chase.

"Come on!" he laughed, trying to coax it out of her with that 'Jethro' smirk that always had her going weak at the knees. "Come on. You love it."

Yes, she did love it, but she loved Emily more and would rather be back home snuggled up in bed with a protective arm wrapped around her daughter, insuring the young girl was safe from harm. "Truthfully? I'd rather be in bed."

Only when he sat up more with a knowing smirk being sent her way did she realize exactly what that must have sounded like. "Sleeping," she added nervously. True she had been thinking about sleeping, but now that he put the image of the two of them engaging in another form of sleeping, that backseat was looking more entertaining than the abandoned house they were staring at.

"Remember that stake out in Marseille?" Oh no! No he couldn't possibly be going there! Her composure and determination were already slipping. If he continued to conjure up that memory, this evening would most certainly end in more than just talking. But did he stop there? Oh, not in the slightest. Nope, as usual, Jethro continued on, painting the picture of their 'first time.' "August. Stuck in that attic with no air. Photographing everyone who boarded that Lebanese trawler. That second night, that's the first time we…"

Oh God! She had to put a stop to this, already feeling aroused at merely his recollections of that night. Placing a hand over his mouth she silenced him before he could put a voice to exactly what activity they partook in for the first time while in Marseille. "Okay…shut up."

Feeling him smirk and place light kiss to her palm, she quickly retracted her hand, focusing her attention back on the street. "Hand me the binocs. They're underneath your seat," he said, turning on the windshield wipers. She watched his brows furrow in a manner that told her he saw something she didn't. Reaching under her seat, she passed him the binoculars, feeling an odd sense of déjà vu back to her probie days in Europe.

"What?" she asked, when she couldn't take his silent musing any longer.

"That's Ari's SUV," he said passing her the binoculars.

In shock, more over the idea that Ziva might be wrong than Jethro being right, Jenny grabbed them to see for herself. Before she could get a look at the plates, she saw the window roll down and the butt of a rifle stick out. "Shooter!" she screamed, ducking down. She felt Jethro manage to dive down on top of her just missing the bullet going through the windshield.

"Stay down," he commanded, leaving no room for argument. Shifting the car into drive, he took off towards the SUV, all while staying down below the windshield.

'_Oh God!' _she thought. _'I just survived a near miss with a bullet only to die from Jethro's driving!_' He was bad enough at driving when he could see. God only knows what could happen with him not looking.

She watched him spare a glance up and he must have seen something because he stayed sitting up and took a sharp swerve onto the sidewalk, all while keeping sure she didn't move from her crouched position. Damn chauvinist!

Following his lead, she flung her door open and couched behind it firing her weapon. When the man went down, she let Jethro move towards him first while she provided back up, knowing he'd bite her head off if she tried moving first. He always needed to make sure a suspect was down before letting her near. A habit that had been the source of many arguments during their partnership. She watched Jethro flip Ari onto his back only to come face to face with, not the man she expected Ari to be, but a boy. "I expected Haswari to older," she said, surprised Jethro would be so determined to hunt down a young boy.

"He is," Jethro confirmed sadly. Only she couldn't tell if the sadness was due to having killed a teenager or that this wasn't Ari. Probably both she figured. He never took any killing lightly and she knew he still wanted Ari dead.

Looking back at the dead boy, Jenny froze at how innocent and young he looked. She bent down next to the boy and traced a finger along his jaw. "He is so young," she whispered, still shell-shocked at the boy's age. God, maybe it was a good thing she was no longer a field agent. It wasn't the first instance where she needed to fire the kill shot on a young person. And yes, while it had been a while with her more recent focus being on the intelligence portion of anti-terrorism, it still should not leave her feeling like _she_ was the monster.

"He tried to kill you, Jen," Jethro pointed out and she could hear in his voice that he was as confused by her actions as she was.

"I know," she said quietly. And she did know that, did understand that there was no other way. So why did she _feel_ differently? When did she become so soft? Oh yea, when she gave birth to a child of her own. She just couldn't believe how much being a mother had changed her as an agent. "It's just…" she tried to find the words to explain it to him, but failed.

He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder and said, "I know, Jen. I know." Right, they never needed words.

Thankfully, it was still dark when Jethro dropped her back off at home, claiming he would take care of things at NCIS and she could give her statement and review Abby's findings in the morning. Normally she would protest, and the schizoid libber half of her definitely wanted too. But she left Emily home long enough, so the mother half of her won. She knew Jethro was surprised that she didn't argue, but he took his victory silently not wanting her to change her mind.

She quietly crept into her house, finding Agent Montgomery in the living room watching the news on mute. "How was she?" Jenny asked, trying not to let her nervousness show. She still feared Emily might have had a nightmare when she wasn't there to comfort her.

"Just fine, ma'am. Slept the whole time you were out," Montgomery said, looking as relieved as she felt at that news.

"Thank you again for this. You and Agent Davis can go home for the night. Stanley will be here in two hours anyway," she said dismissing him.

"Yes, ma'am."

After seeing him out, she ventured upstairs to find her beautiful girl still fast asleep. Taking a few moments to watch Emily sleep from the doorway, Jenny felt the events of the night slowly start to fade away. For the next few hours, she would be right where she wanted to be. After kicking off her shoes and locking up her badge and gun, she crawled under the covers and wrapped an arm around her daughter, not even bothering to change. She smiled as Emily unconsciously shifted closer and then Jenny fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.

Peaceful…until her alarm clock blared an hour later. Reluctantly, she rolled out of bed to shut the annoying buzz off. Walking back over to the bed, she slowly started to rock her daughter awake. "Emily, baby, it's time to get up." Emily simply mumbled something and rolled right back over in her sleep. "Alright sleepyhead, you better be up by the time I get out of the shower," Jenny ordered, tickling her daughter into a sleepy giggle fest. "What's that, young lady? I couldn't quite hear."

"I'll get up," Emily shrieked through her laughter.

"Good," Jenny laughed, kissing Emily's forehead before heading into the shower.

After her shower, she peaked out the bathroom door to insure that Emily was up. Seeing the bed empty, Jenny shut the door once more to finish getting ready, only to open it a minute later when a thought hit her. "Emily Ziva Shepard, you had better not have gone back to sleep in your own room!"

Hearing covers being flung off and a loud thump of her daughter jumping of bed, Jenny knew she'd been right on the money. That was one of the difficulties of having a smart and cleaver child; Jenny had to work to stay one step ahead of her. "I'm almost ready!" she heard Emily cry.

_'Yea, right, you're almost ready!'_ "Just because I can't see your eye twitching does not mean I can't tell when you're lying," Jenny hollered, hearing the hall bathroom door shut as a response. Yep, Emily was already smart enough to know not to confirm or deny an accusation. Chuckling at her daughter, Jenny shut her own bathroom door to finish getting ready herself. This was Emily's way of instigating a challenge to prove she could sleep late and still be ready on time, so Jenny would be doomed if she let the girl finish first.

When Emily finally ran downstairs to the kitchen, Jenny already had her own coffee made and a bowl of cereal ready for Emily. She laughed when she saw Emily glance back and forth between Jenny and the cereal questionably. "I just thought since we have a few minutes we could sit down and you could tell me how your first day of school went. You kind of fell asleep on me last night."

"And you went out with Agent Gibbs last night," Emily retaliated slyly, sliding into her seat at the counter.

"How did you? You know what? Never mind, I don't even want to know." How her daughter always managed to pick up on these things, Jenny would never know. Taking a sip of coffee, Jenny sat down next to Emily at the counter, anxious to hear how her first day went. "So how was school?"

"Fine," Emily shrugged. Not exactly the enthusiastic response Jenny expected, which worried her. Emily loved school and loved to talk about it even more.

"Just fine?"

"Ms. Swanson wants to have a meeting with you," Emily mumbled, staring into her cereal bowl.

"Emily!"

"I swear I didn't correct her on anything! I learned my lesson at my last school"

Okay if that wasn't the problem, now Jenny was really worried. Emily didn't get in trouble, certainly not enough for her teacher to need to speak with Jenny. "What happened then, sweetie?"

"She says she thinks I need to skip another grade." And now it all made sense. Emily already skipped one grade and hated being the youngest kid. Skipping another grade would not be what the young girl wanted.

"We had you tested when we signed you up and you tested into second grade."

"I guess being able to speak three languages makes me too smart for second grade."

True, having lived in Europe, Emily had attended classes taught in both Spanish and French, but Emily had already been through so much. Did she really need the added challenge of being a six year old third grader? Plus, Jenny still felt she needed a stronger basis in English grammar to get rid of those 'gottas' and 'gonnas.' But she couldn't help but wonder if by giving in, she would be holding her daughter back? Still, seeing Emily, who generally couldn't wait to get to school, looking so miserable, Jenny knew what she had to do. "Don't worry about a thing, baby girl," she said, turning the girl's chin to face her. "Mommy will take care of it."

"Really?" Emily exclaimed, her eyes lighting up.

"Of course."

"Thank you!" she cried, leaning over to give Jenny a tight hug. "I love you, Mommy!"

"I love you too, baby girl," Jenny said, kissing the top of her head. "Now, eat up if we want to get to school early enough for me to tell Ms. Swanson that my little angel wants to stay in second grade."

After getting everything settled at Emily's school, Jenny finally made it into work only to wish she had stayed home. First, she learned the only person last night's sniper had been trying to kill was her. Not a single shot was intended for Jethro. Just another reason to add to the list of why she should never have gone out last night! Secondly, she'd learned all the rounds from last night's shooting matched the round that killed Agent Todd.

Thirdly, she had to be the one to explain it all to Jethro. "Since Miss Sciuto confirmed that the sniper rifle we recovered last night was the weapon used to murder Special Agent Todd, and with no evidence to the contrary, it appears that Mohamed Esfiri was the sniper." And of course, as usual, he was just ignoring everything she was saying. "I believe it's safe for your team to go home now, Gibbs."

Seeing as Jethro continued to choose to ignore her, she refocused her attention on his team. "Special Agent Todd's funeral is in Indiana tomorrow afternoon. SecNav has offered us his private jet to fly us there. Go home. Get some rest." There lied problem number four. What to do with Emily while she went off to Indiana.

Instead of following her orders, they all stood there looking at Gibbs. Oh she was going to have her work cut out for her if this team continued to value Gibbs' orders over her own. She should be the one to have the final word. She was the Director, after all. Finally Gibbs seemed to come to and nodded for them to do as they were told.

When they all had left, she finally turned to Jethro who hadn't moved an inch. "What about you, Jethro?"

"Mohamed didn't kill Kate and he didn't shoot at Abby." Would he ever give this a rest?

"You are not infallible, Jethro, no matter what your gut is telling you. Ari is not trying to kill you but this obsession might." He needed to let this go before this destroyed him.

"Hey, Jen?" Oh and now he was trying to be cute. And damn him! It was working.

"What?" she asked annoyed.

"Why did he only shoot at your side of the car last night?" God, hadn't they been over this earlier with McGee?

"I suppose you were right. He was trying to kill women who work with you."

"How did know you were in the car?" he argued, leaning over his desk to level with her. "I called you at the spur of the moment. I parked in the dark. He couldn't see through our windshield even with a scope." Okay, so he may have her there… "That guy was sent to die, not to kill."

Well, he had her up to that point, at least. The sniper was just a boy! He wouldn't…he couldn't! "No," she objected. "No one's going to do that."

"Come on, Jen," he tried to reason, heading for the elevator. "Hamas suicide bombers blow themselves up all the time. It doesn't matter how they die as long as it's for the Jihad. Mohammad's last night? He died for rivers of honey and seventy two virgins," he argued slamming the button on the elevator.

She couldn't believe she was letting him get to her again! Did she ever learn her lesson? Apparently not because here she was starting to believe him more and more. "I'm not saying you're right, but if you are, how do we prove it?"

"We? Did you just join my side?" Was he really asking that again? Apparently he never learned either.

"Jethro, I've always been on your side," she said firmly, hoping to ingrain the fact in his head once and for all. "What do we do?"

"Kill Ari before he kills me," he answered simply.

It took all she had not to add a 'Duh!' to his answer, but as soon as the elevator doors closed giving them privacy, she couldn't help it. "I thought that was rather obvious, Jethro. I was kind of hoping you might have a more detailed plan in mind."

She watched a smirk weave its way onto his face and it suddenly felt just like old times. "Oh, don't you worry, Jen. I definitely have a plan." By the tone of his voice and the way he was looking at her, Jenny knew they were no longer discussing Ari. He started to reach out to her and she knew the second he made contact with her skin she would be lost to him forever.

Her eyes fluttered closed in anticipation, only to shoot back open when his caress never came. The elevator doors opened and he instantly retracted his hand at the sight of people waiting for the elevator. Stepping out awkwardly to free up the elevator for those waiting, Jethro turned to her after the doors shut once more. "They were not part of my plan."

Jenny simply smirked and brushed passed him, whispering, "Next time, flick the emergency stop," before sauntering off adding that extra special sway to her hips. Oh she most certainly was interested in hearing the rest of this plan of his.

**October 2005**

"Auntie Ziva!" a voice cried, startling Ziva David out of her unpacking. Laughing, she turned around just in time to catch the little girl running into her arms. Picking up and spinning her around, she smiled as the child shrieked in laughter. The young girl then placed a kiss on each of Ziva's cheeks, greeting her in the traditional Israeli way, "Shalom."

"Shalom, precious," Ziva said, responding in kind. Continuing to hold Emily in her arms, Ziva walked out into the kitchen to find her friend Jenny unpacking a few things she obviously must have brought over. "She is getting rather good at cracking locks, yes?" Ziva joked, knowing Jenny just _loved_ when Ziva taught Emily some of her Mossad tricks. Currently they were secretly working on the eighteen different ways to kill someone with a paperclip.

"It's picking locks, Ziva," Jenny corrected, feeling like she was talking to Emily on her grammar. "And trust me when I say she desperately wanted to try. I'm afraid you left the door unlocked this time, though."

Frowning at that news, Ziva said, "I thought for sure I locked it so she could test her new lock picking kit." As a sorry-you-had-to-move-again gift, Jenny had given the girl a photograph of her father. Ducky sent her a bouquet of gorgeous flowers. And what did Ziva get her? A lock picking kit. "Oh well, we will just have to try it out later, won't we?" she asked the girl in her arms.

"Alright!" Emily exclaimed, in excitement.

"Super," groaned Jenny, causing both Ziva and Emily to giggle. "Well, we got you a couple things as a house warming present. This is from me," Jenny said, holding up a bottle of what looked to be very expensive wine with a bow wrapped neatly around the top.

"Thank you, Jenny. I know what we shall be doing later on when you arrive home from work."

"Oh that's not all," Jenny assured her, pulling out two nicely wrapped presents. "This first one is from me and the second is from Emily."

Walking over, Ziva sat Emily down on top of the counter so she could open her gifts. Opening Jenny's first, she found her signed transfer to NCIS paperwork, officially assigning her to Agent Gibbs' team, along with her NCIS badge and standard weapon. Excitedly, Ziva hugged Jenny. "Thank you very much. I am greatly looking forward to working with Gibbs."

"You're welcome, Ziva," Jenny said, hugging Ziva back. "I can assure you working with Gibbs is hardly ever boring." Ziva smirked at the second part, but knew well enough not to make any sly comments on just how _entertaining_ Jenny's partnership with Gibbs seemed to be with Emily sitting right there. While Ziva felt that Emily should know the truth, seeing as she was now living in the same city as her father, she also knew it was not her place to tell the girl who her father was.

"Open mine, Auntie Ziva!" Emily cried on the counter, passing Ziva the box.

She playfully shook it a bit for the girl's amusement. "I wonder what it could be." Ziva then ripped off the colorful paper and carefully took the top of the box of. Pushing the tissue paper back, she smiled at what she found. She held up the picture frame and scanned over the photo of Ziva and Emily smiling in a park near one of their European apartments, with Ziva carrying the young girl on her back. A donkeyback ride she thought it was called. "This is perfect, Emily. Thank you," she said gratefully, pulling the girl into a hug.

"Emily, sweetheart, why don't you go put your bag in the other room," Jenny suggested, holding Emily's backpack out to her.

"Okay!" the girl said, jumping off the counter, grabbing her backpack and running off into the other room.

After Emily had left, Jenny turned back to Ziva. "Are you sure you're okay to watch her for the day?" Jenny asked cautiously. Emily had a day off from school and Ziva knew Jenny was nervous to leave Emily with anyone other than Ziva, but she also did not want to put Ziva out.

"We will be fine, Jenny. You need not worry, though I know you rightly will." Ziva knew nothing she could say would make Jenny feel comfortable leaving Emily anywhere, not after Cairo. A fact that Ziva did not disagree with. She herself, dislike whenever Emily was not in the care of either herself or Jenny.

"It's a professional hazard of being a mother, I'm afraid. So Emily has her blanket and Eeyore if she wants to take a nap. She despises getting up early, so she will probably fall asleep at some point today."

Ziva smiled, as Jenny listed off a number of things Ziva already knew. After all, up until now, Ziva had lived with Jenny and Emily, so she was fully aware of all Emily's habits and needs. However, she allowed Jenny to inform her of everything once more in the hopes that it may relax Jenny, at least enough to get her to work.

While Jenny was still in the middle of her speech, Emily came running back in, rolling her eyes at her mother's protectiveness. "Mommy, Ziva already knows all this," she pointed out and Ziva watched Jenny's shoulder's relax. Emily really was good for her.

"Okay, I see your point," sighed Jenny. "Come here and give Mommy a hug and a kiss before I go to work."

Smiling at her victory, Emily ran into Jenny's arms and planted a kiss on her cheek. "Bye, Mommy. Have a good day at work and don't call Auntie Ziva twenty times." Oh yes, the girl was most certainly cleaver.

"Yes ma'am," Jenny laughed, faking a salute to her daughter. "Now, be good for Ziva and help her unpack."

"Okay, Mommy," Emily agreed, giving her mom one last hug before hurrying back off to wait for Ziva in the other room.

"Thanks again, Ziva. I'll see you later on," Jenny said one last time before seeing herself out.

The weekend flew by about as fast as Jenny and Ziva managed to down that entire bottle of wine Friday evening. Jenny and Emily had spent the weekend at Ziva's apartment helping her unpack and taking her to all the best home decorating stores in the D.C. area. Jenny found Ziva to be adjusting quite well, even in the short while she'd been in the States, and she knew with hers and Gibbs' team's help Ziva would soon be as comfortable in America as anyone.

With Emily back in school, Jenny managed to get to work earlier than she had Friday and at least could relax slightly knowing at school she could blend in as an ordinary kid and not stick out as the daughter of the Director of NCIS. Having settled the matter on Emily remaining in second grade with the school, Emily was back to her usual self of all but jumping out of the car before it fully parked in front of the school, which also helped to keep Jenny from stressing too much of her daughter's well being. As long as Emily was happy, Jenny was happy.

Her first month as Director of NCIS had been strenuous at best, with the loss of a deeply loved special agent, a number of high profile cases including a serial killer's apprentice nearly killing Agent Cassidy, and as always, Jethro was being Jethro. And it was the latter that seemed to make her life most difficult because she was the person who had to deal with SecNav, the FBI, the CIA, Homeland Security, Metro Police, and the rest of the alphabet soup whenever he managed to piss someone of with his _sparkling personality_.

God, she could not wait for Ziva to start work later on in the week. Having her friend there would be comforting and beneficial. She could learn more about how Jethro's team operated without her having to poke around down in the bullpen herself. Not that she would encourage Ziva to be her own personal spy, but if the two went out to eat or were enjoying a glass of wine, and Ziva happened to provide her with some professional or even juicy details about Gibbs and the boys, Jenny would hardly object.

Now, all she had to do was find a way to tell Jethro, she was assigning Ziva to his team as a Mossad liaison officer. After all, there had been a great deal of animosity between the two the last time Ziva had been around NCIS. But that only had to do with the minor detail that Jethro had been completely determined to kill Ari who happened to be Ziva's half brother. Nothing they couldn't move on from, right? Jenny certainly hoped so and she was banking on the somewhat more courteous interaction between the two following Jethro proving Ari guilty of murdering Agent Todd and Ari's own death shortly thereafter.

The door to MTAC opened and somehow she just knew it would be him. He didn't have a case yet and, despite it being only the very start of the day, he was probably bored and thought bothering her would be more entertaining than paperwork. She didn't necessarily mind; after all, his attempts to avoid doing paperwork got her out of doing paperwork too. She just preferred he bother her in the privacy her office and not in the middle of MTAC where she never seemed to be alone.

Of course, he didn't have any legitimate reason to insure they were in private. They never did anything more than flirt these days. He seemed to seriously be respecting her no 'off the job' comment because he hadn't even come within a one foot radius of her since his failed attempt to caress her face in the elevator a month ago. She regretted that damn comment so much. One thing was for sure, she definitely needed to find a way to see him off the job little by little so she could see more of this so called plan he had to convince her to retract the barrier she built between them back on day one of her time as Director.

He must have spotted the row of seats she was sitting in, not that it was that hard with her being the only one sitting down, because she sensed him slide down the row and plant himself in the empty seat next to her. "Something I can help you with this morning, Special Agent Gibbs?" Jenny asked, keeping her tone light but still strictly professional. MTAC was rather crowded for this early in the morning. Still, she could almost feel the 'I'm bored' comment bursting out of him.

Instead of answering right away, he started glancing around and watched an agent exit MTAC. Jenny sighed, pulling off her glasses, getting the unfortunate feeling that this may not be a Jethro's bored visit, as originally expected. "Yeah. I got a personnel issue. You know anything about that?"

Oh crap! "I take it Ziva arrived a few days early?" She knew she should have made more of an emphasis on the highlighted start date to Ziva when she gave the paperwork to her Friday. Not to mention, she had known Ziva for six years and should have predicted Ziva would get bored and want to start work early, figuring Jenny would have already told Jethro to expect her sometime this week. Well, on the plus side, Jenny could cross figuring out how to broach the subject of Ziva's liaison position with Jethro off her list. He already knew.

At his silent staring, Jenny sighed feeling a headache coming on. "Right. Before we get into this, I'm gonna need a refill," Jenny said, gesturing to her second empty coffee cup of the morning. She would definitely need more coffee if she was to get through this conversation, especially at eight o'clock in the morning.

As she started to close the file she had been reading, he grabbed her cup, popping the lid off. She watched the lid flutter to the ground, while Jethro dumped the rest of his coffee into her cup and dropped it back into her seat's cup holder. "That was sweet, not necessarily sanitary," she commented, eyeing the cup not sure whether to drink it or not. Sure they had shared more than just coffee back in the day, but her brain suddenly shifted into overdrive trying to determine what him giving her his coffee meant. Usually she had to steal it from him and pay significant consequences as a result.

"What is she doing here, Jen?" Jethro asked all business.

Okay if he wanted to take an all business tone of voice with her, she could easily reciprocate. "If we're going to fight a global war on terror, we need to work closely with our allies."

"Well, that sounds good. Put her on someone else's team." See there was a reason she kept putting this conversation off. It was going about as bad as she expected. God the last thing she needed, as both Director and Jenny, was another wedge cemented between herself and Jethro.

"I want her with you, Jethro." Jethro had trained Jenny and now she wanted him to train Ziva, but she would be oblivious if she didn't admit she had personal reasons for it too. Jenny desperately needed Jethro and Ziva to workout whatever differences they had, so that when the time came for her to finally tell Jethro he has a daughter, the two most important people in hers and Emily's life would not be at opposing ends.

"Mossad trained her to spy and kill, not to investigate crime scenes." Did he really believe she didn't know that? Of course, she did and that was exactly why she wanted Ziva working for Jethro. Ziva wanted to be trained to investigate and Jethro was the best NCIS had at both the investigating and the training. "Send her to the CIA," he concluded in a tone that said he would not cooperate.

He might be able to push Jenny around and make her go weak at the knees with just one look, but after a month the Director half of her had grown stronger and she would be damn sure he did cooperate. "Just to be clear, this is not a request or a debate, Agent Gibbs."

"Anything else about my team you wanna change about my team while I'm here?" Did his attitude count? Probably not, she determined. So much for not driving a wedge between her and Jethro.

"Look, if anything, you're lucky to have her. She's one of the finest agents I ever worked with in Europe," Jenny tried to reason, hoping to convince him that even if he was upset about her professional decision not to be angry at her on a personal level.

"Why didn't you ask me first, Jen?" he asked angrily.

"And what would you have said?" she asked in kind, knowing full well his answer would have been an outright 'no!' She wanted to tell him that, as he glared at her as a response, he was only reaffirming her point. "Exactly," she pointed out, getting a perfect idea of how to settle the issue once and for all. "Number 18, it's better to seek forgiveness than ask permission," she stated, quoting one of his infamous Gibbs' rules of how to be a good NCIS agent. This one however, was one of the ones she planned to hold off teaching Emily, seeing as she definitely wanted her daughter to ask her permission before doing anything – especially during her teenage years.

"Oh, that's real nice. Using the rules I taught you against me," he groaned before dropping the Agent Gibbs act and complimenting, "Nice touch," with a smile that was all Jethro.

"I learned from the best, Jethro," she said, reciprocating the compliment back to him. "I want Ziva to as well."

Nodding his acceptance, he fell silent for a while. She turned her attention back to her file, before feeling someone poke her in the arm. "Hey, Jen," Jethro whispered.

"Yes, Jethro?"

He paused for a moment, before finally saying, "I'm bored." Oh, here we go again!

It had been another tiring day with the early morning mission in MTAC, several meetings, and about four dozen mission reports to read over, but Jenny still couldn't help but feel like a weight was lifted off her shoulders. Ziva was finally here and Jenny was thrilled to be working with her one again, as well as having her best friend around and someone who she trusted Emily with more than any other.

She was heading upstairs to her office to pack up her things for the day and head home to relieve Naomi when a sight caught her eye. She faulted on the stairs, nearly tripping, as she felt as if someone was tearing her heart right out of her chest. The simple metaphor of her heart breaking could never cover what it felt like to see Jethro walking another redhead to the elevator, kissing her goodnight on the cheek. She quickly forced herself to recover before he could turn around and catch her. Climbing the rest of the stairs as quickly as she could, Jenny hurried off into her office, her sanctuary, where she could freely deal with her emotional torment as her hope of her, Emily, and Jethro someday having a future where they could be a true family shattered.

Once back in the safety of her office, she called Naomi to see what the woman's plans for the evening were and when she informed Jenny that she had none, Jenny asked if she would watch Emily a while longer because she got held up at work.

Jenny had lost track of how long she'd locked herself away in her office, when she heard a light knocking at her door. "Jenny?"

Not even bothering to attempt to rid away the evidence that she'd been crying, knowing the Mossad officer would see right through her, Jenny hollered, "Come in, Ziva."

Cautiously moving through the office, Ziva took a seat opposite Jenny and sat quietly for a moment before finally asking, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No…yes…possibly…I don't know," Jenny flip-flopped, not really sure if she could handle talking about it, but also unsure if keeping it bottled up would do more harm than good. "I just…he's been acting all flirtatious and being all nice, you know? I just never expected to be blindsided like that."

"So he has been acting as if he would like to continue your intimate relationship, yes?" Ziva asked, trying to insure she heard everything correctly through Jenny's tears and American euphemisms.

"Yes," sighed Jenny. "Since my first day as Director."

"That is a good thing, is it not?"

"I thought it was," Jenny admitted. "But with him you never can truly know. I just wanted to hold off on diving right into everything like he seemed to be insinuating because I needed to take things slow enough that I could judge if he would be involved enough to be a part of Emily's life of if he would simply flee at the first mention of him having a daughter."

"I can see how that would be important…" Ziva agreed for which Jenny was gracious for. After all, Ziva had made her opinion that Emily's father should be told the truth, both for his and the girl's sakes, perfectly clear. Hearing her agree that Jenny did need to know that Jethro was ready and willing to be a father to Emily before introducing the two at least made Jenny feel slightly better about the whole mess.

"I thought things were going well. I mean we were talking, flirting, acting like friends again. Just the way it was leading up to when we first crossed that invisible line. But now this…"

Ziva opened her mouth to respond, but never got the opportunity to when Jenny's office door slammed open. "Jenny, I was wondering…" Jethro began as he strolled into the room, only stopping when he finally registered that Jenny wasn't alone. Watching as he took in her appearance, she tried to hide her face to mask the evidence that she'd just been balling her eyes out. He glanced back and forth between her and Ziva, and Jenny could see that she'd been too late. Jethro already caught sight of her stray tears. As if reading Jethro's mind, Ziva nodded to him, before slipping out of the office and shutting the door to give the two some privacy.

Jethro ignored any pretense of personal boundaries and rounded around her desk so that he was crouching right next to her sitting form. Jenny didn't dare glance up at him, instead chose to continue hiding her face. He may have seen evidence of her crying but she certainly did not need him knowing that it had been complete waterworks…over him, no less. "Jen?" he said, reaching out to brush her hair back slightly to try and see her face.

Oh, how she so desperately wanted to lean into his soft caress, but he'd torn her to pieces with his earlier PDA so she instantly retracted away at his touch, alarming him further. "Jen, what's wrong?" he asked softly, not daring to attempt the physical contact thing a second time. At least not so soon after his first failure.

"Just leave, Jethro," Jenny ordered, trying to pull herself together but ultimately failing. Ignoring the forcefulness in her tone, Jethro stayed exactly where he was, silently ordering her to tell him what was bothering her. "Just because you continue to stay here does not mean I am going to spill my guts out to you," Jenny tried, though her resolve was failing as a few stray tears started to fall.

With a deep breath, Jethro disregarded the risk of her inflicting bodily harm and reached out to wipe a tear of her cheek, whispering, "Who hurt you, Jen?" At first he thought she might be giving into him when she didn't pull away, but the second he added, "If it was Fornell, I swear I'll…" he knew he screwed up big time.

"It was not Fornell!" she screamed. "Do you honestly believe I would be crying if it was Fornell, Jethro? There is only one person on this planet who has ever been able to hurt me this way and you know it!"

She watched as the light bulb flicked on in his head, before pushing away from her desk and gathering up her coat and briefcase. "Jen…what did I do?" God didn't he know the phrase 'if you have to ask…?' When she put her coat on and started for the door, he pleaded, "Jen don't leave. Talk to me!"

"Just drop it, Jethro," she whispered, leaving him standing there in shock and confusion.

When Jenny finally made it home that night, Naomi informed her that Emily had fallen asleep on the couch waiting for her and that she carried her up to her own bed. Thanking Naomi for staying so late, Jenny saw her out before closing the door to what sounded like a very quiet house. The quiet started to suffocate Jenny as the events of the evening started to well up inside her once more.

Cursing herself for not coming home in time to spend the evening with her daughter, Jenny headed up the stairs to check on the young girl. Peaking into the girl's room, the small nightlight cast just enough light for Jenny to see her daughter fast asleep looking safe and secure with her blanket and Eeyore. God how Jenny hoped and prayed the girl would never grow up and know the hardships of the real world like falling in love only to end up with a broken heart.

As she watched Emily sleep, Jenny felt the tears form once again as the reality of the family she always promised herself she and Emily would one day have would probably never happen smacked her right in the face. Hurrying off to her own room, Jenny quickly changed into some pajama shorts and an old NIS t-shirt of Jethro's she never returned or washed for fear of washing away his unique scent of bourbon, coffee, and sawdust. Jenny then returned her daughter's room, carefully nudging the girl over slightly to make room for herself in the small twin bed. Holding her daughter close, Jenny drank in the unique smell of Jethro, willing that and her daughter's presence to help get her through the night.

Jenny felt someone trying to shake her awake, but she refused to open her eyes. She desperately wanted to return to her dream of her, Emily, and Jethro having a picnic in the park, a ring on her finger and a small baby bump starting to form. "Mommy," she heard a tiny voice cry, but she could not determine if it was in the real world or her dream one. But the shaking did not stop and the voice screamed "MOM WE ARE GOING TO BE LATE!"

Jenny bolted out of her sleep at the sound of her daughter yelling. When she finally came too, she looked over to find Emily already dressed in her uniform. "Baby, what time is it?" Jenny asked panicking.

"Stanley will be here in ten minutes. I've been tryin to wake you up for a half hour," Emily complained, before concern for her mother sunk in. "What's the matter, Mommy?"

"It's trying, Emily…and did you say ten minutes?" Leaping out of the small bed, Jenny ran out of the room towards her own. "We are going to be so late! I'm going to have to…" she cried in her mad dash to get ready.

"MOM – WHAT – IS – THE – MATTER?" Emily asked from the doorway, extremely frustrated

Jenny stopped instantly at the tone of her daughter's voice. She shouldn't be surprised that Emily noticed something off with her. After all, the girl picked up on everything. Still, Jenny did not want to burden the young child with anything. Emily had enough to deal with already. "Nothing's wrong."

"Mommy, something is wrong. You never oversleep. Plus you slept in my room…and you were crying."

Any other day, Jenny would marvel at the amazing way the girl could piece things well beyond her age level together so quickly, but today she just sighed at how observant the girl was. "It's nothing to worry about, baby girl," Jenny tried once more knowing it would never work.

Emily stood their quietly for a moment before softly saying, "It's Dad again, isn't it."

"What makes you say that?" Jenny asked, unsurprised that Emily managed to string that together too.

"Most times you cry it's 'cause you miss Daddy."

"True," Jenny conceded. "But this time it was about Agent Gibbs." Emily still believed her father and Gibbs were two different people. Jenny was actually quite impressed with herself that she managed to keep Emily from determining they were one in the same by only telling the girl her father's first name and only referring to 'Agent Gibbs' by his last.

The doorbell rang before either could say anything more on the issue. "Honey, could you go answer that and tell Stanley I'll be down in a minute." Nodding in defeat, Emily hurried down the stairs so that Stanley wouldn't be kept waiting.

When Jenny finally made it to NCIS, she was relieved to find herself still early enough to avoid Jethro. She quickly crossed the catwalk to the sanctuary of her office only to find she may have not been as lucky as she originally believed. There sitting in her office chair with his feet kicked up on her desk was none other than one Leroy Jethro Gibbs.

Upon hearing her enter the room, he instantly dropped his feet to the ground and strolled right over to her, so his face was practically right up against hers. "You want her gone, Jen? All you have to do is say the word," he said firmly and this time he was the one stalking out of her office leaving a very shocked Jenny in his wake

[][][][][][]

"I still don't get it," Emily said, staring in the mirror checking out her Halloween costume. Jenny tried hard not to laugh but was failing. This had to be the hundredth time since she'd taken Emily to pick out a costume that she explained the concept of Halloween. Having lived in Europe for her entire six years thus far, Emily had never experienced the American holiday of Halloween and she was still trying to wrap her head around it. Still, Jenny didn't believe the girl should miss out.

One would think a child with Emily's intelligence would be able to grasp the concept quite easily, but here the girl was with her brows furrowing in confusion, still trying to work through what on Earth Halloween was all about. "So I dress up in a funny outfit, go around to all the neighbors, and they give me candy?"

"Basically…yes," Jenny laughed. Most children would hear the word candy and didn't care what they had to do to get it, but Emily was seriously trying to figure out why on this one particular day in the year they gave it out to children in costume.

DiNozzo would have been proud of Emily's costume choice if he knew about her. Instead of choosing to be a princess like most girls her age, her little movie-buff in the making had chosen to go as Indiana Jones, straight down to the trademark hat and whip.

"I am also still trying to determine what this holiday is all about. Tony mentioned all the 'crazies' come out tonight, whatever that means," Ziva said from where she was sitting on Jenny's bed, just as confused as Emily.

"It means…" Jenny started, before deciding it was probably best not to even try and explain that. "Well, frankly I don't even really know. It's just traditional."

"You Americans really like your traditions."

"Yes, it's a bad habit of ours," Jenny joked, before placing a hand on her daughter' shoulder. "Now, come on, my little jungle explorer. We don't want to be out too late in case Aunt Ziva gets called into work because one of the 'crazies' decides to come out."


	5. Not as Easy as It Seems

Chapter Five: Not as Easy as It Seems

_Authors Note: As promised chapter Six will be up this week. I just have a section or two left to it, so it will definitely be completed in the next two days. Thanks for reading and reviewing! Hope you enjoy! : )_

**Present Day**

Mexico…warm fresh air, bright blue ocean, quiet peaceful atmosphere, generally full of nice people, and much less crowded than D.C. – especially Mike's virtually isolated place. Of course, Mexico had its problems like any place in the world, but Gibbs could understand why Jenny chose this location to protect their daughter. The only thing Gibbs couldn't wrap his head around was why Jen felt she needed to protect their daughter from _him._

Granted he never exactly gave her reason to believe he wanted children with her or anyone for that matter, not even when they were together in Paris. The one time she asked about him having children of his own, he gave her some smart ass answer, assuming she hadn't been serious. Obviously there had been more to it than that.

God, he shouldn't have pushed her away! That first year of her time as Director they had been drawing closer. She started opening up; he started slowly forgiving her. But then the explosion happened and memories of Shannon and Kelly flooded once more. He had to get away and ironically fled to the very place Jenny hid their daughter. And when he finally returned, he brushed off all her attempts to reach out to him until she all but retreated completely into herself, focusing solely on her revenge mission against La Grenouille. She tried to be there for him, even came to Mexico to check up on him, and he did nothing to show he appreciated her efforts.

That trip she took down here must have been when she convinced Mike to look after Emily if anything happened to her. It would certainly explain why Mike suddenly went from considering Jenny to be incapable of being Director because she was a woman to respecting her enough to fly to Los Angeles when her life was in danger. But how could Mike respect her enough to agree to keep Emily a secret from him? Especially when Mike knew about Kelly.

'_Kelly,'_ he sighed. Now, he knew why the news about his first wife and daughter hit Jenny so hard. She must have felt if she told him about Emily, all he would think about was Kelly. Sure the idea of having another child, especially a daughter, might have reminded him of Kelly on an occasion, but Jenny knew him. How could she ever believe he would reject his own child?

But all that could be turned right back on him too. He knew Jenny Shepard, so why had he believed she would stop loving him if he told her about Shannon and Kelly? He told all his ex wives, so why never Jen? Probably because, with Jen, he actually cared if she left him, feared the day she would stop loving him. Jenny was the first person he honest and truly loved since Shannon. She was the first woman who wasn't a replacement, wasn't a number. She was the first woman he cared too much for to ever allow her to become an ex-wife. He never told _her_ that though, not even once. He feared if he said it, then it would become real and how could he do that to Shannon? Truth be told, he knew deep down if Shannon could see him now, she would call him an idiot for ever letting Jenny go.

What it all came down to in the end was, the questions, the curiosity, his feelings for Jen stirred up inside him were the things he feared the most. The deeper and deeper he fell for Jen, the more he started to wonder what would have happened if Shannon never died. With three ex-wives he knew that his marriage track record was beyond horrible. He always like to believe that Shannon was like Jen, that she was different from the exs, but their time had been caught short before he could ever really know where the future would bring them. Was there any possibility she might have become ex-wife number one if things had turned out differently?

But that wasn't the only question. That one just kept leading into more and more like would he still have joined NCIS or would he have remained in the military? And if he had joined NCIS, what would have happened when he eventually got partnered up with Jenny? Would they simply have been partners or would he have still fallen head over heels in love with her? His affair with Jenny during his engagement with Stephanie was evidence being married might now have stopped them. Whose love would have prevailed in the end, Shannon's or Jen's? Who was his true soulmate or did he simply have more than one?

Ignoring his feelings for Jen had done nothing to ease the bombardment of questions. Instead it only added more. What would Jenny have done if she knew about Shannon and Kelly? Would it have made a difference in her decision to leave him in Paris? He asked her that once after she found out and she simply told him, _'We'll never know, will we?'_ Did she know and was too mad to tell him? Would she have stayed, told him about the young life they created, or would she still have left fearing he would use her and their daughter as replacements for Shannon and Kelly?

Gibbs knew trying to work out answers to those questions was stupid. He had loved Shannon and he had loved Jen, still loved them actually. He should have just told Jenny the truth about everything. He could literally hear both women telling him those questions were normal and that they both loved him no matter what. He knew Shannon would have liked Jen and vice versa. Same with Kelly.

"Please fasten your seatbelts and prepare for landing," the Captain's voice announced over the plane's intercom, reminding him that all those issues were in the past. They were the three women he loved and lost. They were three of his girls and they were gone, but his fourth girl was still alive. Emily was still alive and he needed to start living again for her. That is if he could convince her to forgive him. He could only hope Emily was a little less stubborn than her mother.

When the plane touched down, he breathed in the fresh air, remembering his 'margarita safari,' as Jen called it. He almost missed it here. Too bad his daughter wanted to move back to the States. Otherwise he would be happy to retire for real this time and move down here with her. Either way he was going to start being a father to the girl. He would like to think that despite everything, that was what Jen would have wanted and Shannon too.

Not needing to head to the luggage carousel like the other passengers, Gibbs found a bench outside and dialed the number of the one person he knew would pick up. "Carlos' Cantina," a familiar voice answered.

"Hola, Camila."

"Senor Gibbs," she greeted happily. "It has been a while, si?"

"Yea, too long," he agreed. "Mike there?"

"Si, Senor," she told him before he heard her holler across the bar, "Miguel, phone call for you."

"You wanna tell me why I still got a teenage girl livin in my house, Gunny?" he heard the disapproving voice of his old mentor flood the line, wasting no time on pleasantries. "I never pegged you for a man to send his daughter away cryin."

"You think I'd have flown all night to Mexico if I meant to hurt her, Mike?"

"Awe, I knew ya wouldn't turn her away, Probie," Mike said, the disapproval dissipating instantly. "You at the airport?"

"Yea…I could use a ride," Gibbs told him.

"On my way, Probie."

While Gibbs waited for Mike to pick him up, he wandered around the airport. Finding a bar, he ordered two beers, knowing he and Mike needed to talk before Gibbs attempted to reason with Emily. Not too long after settling in himself, did Mike arrive and park himself at the barstool next to Gibbs. They sat there for a while drinking their beer, before Mike finally decided to break the ice. "I figured she'd wind up tellin ya the truth, Probie."

"She didn't, Mike," Gibbs informed solemnly, as he remembered what it felt like to know his daughter had every intension of walking out of there without ever telling him he was her father. "I figured it out myself."

"Yea, I reckoned that was gonna happen too. But never know for sure with that girl. She's damn smart, Jethro and sayin she's clever be an understatement. Girl's only a teenager and she's basically managed to weasel her way into finding things about La Grenouille I wonder if Jenny even knew."

"Things like what?" Gibbs asked curiously. There was still so much about that man and how he fit into Jenny's life he didn't know and was desperate to uncover. The hunt for La Grenouille was one of the last things Jenny ever did, ever thought about. He and Jen had been so far apart during those last two years of her life. He kept thinking, if he could solve all the mysteries surrounding that time – her motives, her feelings, etc. – it might bring him closer to her somehow. Perhaps his daughter had felt similarly.

"I think that conversation is best saved for later, Jethro," Mike told him quietly, making Gibbs even more curious about what Mike knew. "So you wanna tell me what happened back in D.C. Probie?" he asked, switching the subject.

Gibbs fell silent for a moment, before he finally started to explain, "I started seeing Hollis again. She showed up about halfway through Emily's visit."

Expecting a _'Come on, Probie! Shouldn't you know better than to flaunt ya new girl around ya grievin daughter?'_ Gibbs was more than a little surprised when Mike simply sighed. "Ah, I see," he nodded his understanding. "Yea, she's havin a bit of trouble movin on. She's gotta get out of Mexico."

"I'll do my best, Mike," Gibbs promised. After all, there was no way he wanted to be separated from his daughter again.

"No, Jethro," Mike corrected sternly. "She _needs_ to get out of Mexico. I don't care how you do it, but she really needs to go."

"God, Mike. She really that much of a burden to you?" Gibbs asked shocked. Yea, he knew Mike liked his privacy and raising a kid singlehandedly was not part of his retirement package, but he obviously signed on for it or Emily wouldn't be here.

"No, Probie. You got this all wrong!" Mike objected, rather hurt Gibbs would think he could ever believe Emily to be a burden. True he liked having the place to himself, but having Emily around these years had actually been rather fun. "I'm talkin about her leavin for her own sake."

"Are you saying she's unstable because of her mother's death?" he asked worried.

"No, nothin like that, Jethro," Mike told him and relief flooded through him. "Naw, I just think it must be hard for her to move on here. Emily would stay here at various times during the whole incident with La Grenouille and when it was safe for her to return to the States, Jenny would come and get her. Sometimes I think it's hard for her to remember this isn't one of those times."

"What happened with La Grenouille, Mike? I need to know." Gibbs couldn't let it go any longer. He needed to know what happened to his daughter when he wasn't there to protect her.

"I don't really know all that much, Jethro," Mike sighed, knowing that still wouldn't convince Gibbs to let it go. "What I do know is your daughter has a hit out on her or had a hit out on her I should say. Jenny said this Grenouille guy's dead."

"Yea he was assassinated by the CIA seven years ago. What do you mean by Emily having a hit on her?"

"Sometime when Emily was younger Grenouille kidnapped her over in Europe and apparently at some point after Jenny became Director she got a note from the guy sayin he was gonna try again or somethin. Jenny wasn't really all that specific and if you think she was secretive, wait till you get to know your daughter," joke Mike trying to lighten the mood.

Gibbs completely ignored Mikes joke though, fuming over the fact that his daughter's life had been in danger and he hadn't been around to protect her. How could Jenny not tell him they had a daughter who was in danger? All he could say was La Grenouille was lucky Gibbs didn't know because he wouldn't have killed Grenouille long before either Kort or Jenny did. He still didn't know which actually pulled the trigger. "How could Jen not tell me, Mike?"

"I know she had her reasons, Gunny. What those reasons were though is anyone's guess."

"Well, if you don't know then how the hell did she convince you to keep Emily a secret from me, Mike?" Gibbs argued knowing there would have to be a damn good reason for Mike to keep this from him.

"Alright, alright…don't go jumpin down my throat. She did have multiple reasons I didn't know about but when she told me about Emily she said that she'd just found out about Shannon and Kelly and understood why you said you didn't want children of your own. She said she just couldn't put Emily through that."

"And you actually believed I would reject her, Mike?" Gibbs asked shocked Mike could think so little of him.

"I didn't know what to think, Probie. I figured that ya guys must have talked about havin kids for her to know if ya didn't want any and I couldn't blame ya for that after what happened to Kelly. But I understood where Jenny was comin from too."

Jenny must have overheard his conversation with Decker. They had never talked about having children together, after all. So that only left that conversation with Decker at that bar in Positano. Only she obviously didn't hear the entire conversation, otherwise she might have understood what he had been implying. He and Decker had been waiting for Ducky and Jenny to arrive and they had been discussing Gibbs' latest engagement to Stephanie. Decker had already had a few drinks and had cracked a joke about Gibbs being so good with kids that maybe wife number three might give him one. Gibbs just laughed and told Decker he didn't think he'd be interested in having kids. After a few moments and a huge gulp of beer he finally admitted, "at least not with Stephanie," knowing Decker would catch his underlying meeting.

Obviously Jenny hadn't understood what he meant by that or perhaps she hadn't heard the added admission because what he had been trying to get across to Decker he might not want to have kids with Stephanie or either of his two ex-wives, but if he could convince her to actually have a real relationship with him, he wouldn't mind having a child or two or even three with Jen. Maybe he should have told Jen that instead of Decker….

"She wouldn't happen to have mentioned anything about leaving me in Paris, would she have?" Gibbs asked hopefully. There was just so much he needed to know, so many things he should have asked Jen about but now never would have the chance to.

Mike was silent for a long while and Gibbs was starting to believe the man might not know or at the very least didn't plan on telling him. "Once again there is so much more to it than she told me, Jethro," Mike finally answered. "But she may have mentioned something about a five point plan, which I then called her out on as being total bull to prevent herself from admitting the true reason. After which, she said something about you being engaged to another woman."

"Yea that was a big mistake," signed Gibbs. He'd known dating and getting engaged to Stephanie was one of the biggest mistakes of his life. Not because Stephanie wasn't a wonderful person. She was definitely the best out of all his ex-wives. But it was a mistake because it pushed the woman he truly loved away from him, believing herself to only be good enough for an affair. Jen was so much better than an affair and she deserved so much more than that. Jen deserved the best of him, of a relationship, of love, of everything and it was that feeling that scared him into marrying a woman he didn't love instead of the woman he did.

"If it's any consolation, Probie, before Jenny died, she told me leavin you in Paris was her deepest regret. She still loved ya, Jethro. Hell, I think the only person she loved more in this world was Emily."

The two sat there for a while, as Jethro tried to process the fact that Jenny never stopped loving him. Somehow he always knew that; he just hadn't wanted to see it until it was too late. It had been easier to pretend her feeling for him faded because then he could pretend he wasn't still completely in love with her. But then she had died and it felt as if they wasted those last three years of her life trying to deny that they belonged together instead of just admitting they still loved each other and being happy for those final years.

"It wasn't supposed to be a permanent arrangement, Gunny," Mike said, breaking the silence.

"What?"

"Emily stayin with me," he told Gibbs. "Jenny was supposed to tell you the truth after she leaned she was sick that way Emily would live with you after she died. Only Jenny said the time she asked you to stay and talk with her, you walked away."

Closing his eyes, Gibbs could literally see the moment flash before his eyes and he cursed himself for being such an idiot.

"_Once upon a time I would have asked you to stay and I wouldn't have taken no for an answer," she had said, offering him the chance to talk through their differences and maybe even do more than talk._

"_No," he had told her._

Of course, he couldn't be held completely accountable. Did she really have to be so damn cryptic about everything? Had he known she needed to have a serious conversation with him, he might have stayed. Instead, thinking she was offering to relive some of their good old Paris times, he said no and he only said no because she was babysitting a young boy involved in one of the cases they were running. He didn't exactly think that was the perfect time for them to get back together. But one again, he probably should have told Jen that instead of just saying 'no.'

"Yea," Gibbs sighed, acknowledging he had in fact not given Jenny the chance to tell him that night. "I really messed up with Jen, Mike, which is why I can't mess up with Emily. What I gotta know to fix this?"

"Main thing to know about Emily is she grew up as a definite mommy's girl and rightfully so if ya were to ever see those two together, Probie. I don't reckon there's anything that could have shaken her more than losin Jenny. The second thing you gotta know…" Mike started to explain, training off.

"What, Mike?" Gibbs asked anxiously. He hated Mike playing games and now certainly was not the time. He needed to fix things with his daughter.

Smirking, Mike continued, "The second thing is that Emily loves her father more than anything in the world, even though she never met him until yesterday."

"Wait…what?"

"She and Jenny were making videos of all Emily's milestones for you and I've tried to keep up with them myself, knowing Jenny would want that. Helpful hint though, don't ask her about it. She'll give them to you when she's ready. She does love you, Jethro and she looks up to you. You know what she wants to do with her life?"

"Um… yea she mentioned being a NCIS agent," Gibbs answered, still trying to wrap his mind around everything.

"Just like her father," Mike reiterated, trying hard not to laugh at how bewildered and overwhelmed. "And after that, Director of NCIS like her mother. She wants to make the both of ya proud."

Still overwhelmed by everything, Gibbs simply came to one conclusion, "I really got to fix this, Mike.""

[][][][][][]

A short while later, Mike dropped Gibbs off at the house before he heading off to return to happy hour at the Cantina. Only problem was, Gibbs couldn't find his daughter. Mike assured him that Emily was indeed at home, but Gibbs checked all the rooms and there was no sign of her. Just when he was about to call Mike, he heard a loud pounding coming from above. Rushing outside, his hand resting comfortably on his sidearm, he glanced up to see Emily hammering something on the roof.

Smiling at how intent she was on her work, Gibbs hollered, "Mind if I join you up there?" Her startled yelp alerted him just in time to jump out of the way of a falling hammer.

"Dios Mio, Uncle Mike! I'm so…" she started to apologize, poking her head over the edge. Her worried look instantly converted into anger at the sight of Gibbs and she started to yell, "Gibbs, are you out of your mind? I could have killed you!"

"Naw, I have good reflexes," he chuckled, taking the liberty of climbing up the latter without her permission.

Rolling her eyes she moved to the opposite side of the roof, putting distance between them. Gibbs smirked at her, remembering Jenny used to do the same thing on the couch or in bed whenever she was mad at him. "You always the one to patch up the roof?"

"Someone's got to. Not that there's really much else to do around here," she shrugged before smirking when she added, "Plus, it's always fun to drop wood on Uncle Mike when he's sleeping."

"Especially when it causes him to spill his beer all over his shirt," Gibbs laughed, while sitting himself on the edge of the roof, dangling his legs over the side.

"Yea, exactly!" She smiled, before shaking if off, remembering she was supposed to be mad at him. A good sign, he decided. Glancing over at him, she sighed and crawled over, mimicking his position on the side of the roof.

"You don't really seem all that surprised to see me," Gibbs pointed out, having expected her to scream and yell at him for coming after her.

"I knew you'd eventually show up," she sighed. "I just didn't expect you to jump on the first Redeye flight down here."

"Must make you pretty special, huh," he smirked, elbowing her arm lightly.

She didn't glance over at him, but Gibbs could see a hint of a smile flash across her face. He could tell he was growing on her. They sat there in silence for a while longer, before she finally turned to face him. "Did you ever love her?" she asked him, surprising him, but it was the clarification she gave him next that startled him the most. "And by that I mean _really_ love her and not the kind of love of a one night stand that had an unfortunate consequence," she said, gesturing to herself.

He opened and close his mouth several times, blown away that she could ever think of herself that way. At his lack of response, she turned away. When she started to attempt to jump down to the ground, he gripped her shoulder holding her back. "Hey, look at me," he whispered, turning her to face him. "You are _not_ an unfortunate consequence. You are the wonderful result of a relationship I had with a woman I loved more than anything in the world."

Her eyes started to water and he knew she must have seen the sincerity in his eyes. He can't recall a time in his life when he's ever been more honest with anyone. It's the first time he admitted his true feeling for Jenny out loud and it's the first time in a long while he can recall ever telling a person how much they meant to him, but his daughter deserved that.

Emily bit her lip and he could see she was trying to hold in the tears. _'Strong girl, just like her mother_,_'_ he observed. But now wasn't a time to be strong. Mike was right; Emily needed to start moving on and so did Gibbs. "Come here," he whispered, wrapping his arms tightly around his daughter. He kissed her forehead, rubbing soothing circles over her back, and was rewarded when her tears finally started to flow. "I just miss her so much," he heard her choke out.

"Me too, Em. Me too," he sighed, kissing the top of her head once more. God, he missed Jen so much.

A short while later Emily pulled away sharply, obviously trying not to act weak in front of him. "It's okay to cry, Emily. I do when I remember her sometimes." Nodding, she leaned her head back down onto his shoulder and the two sat there for a long while taking comfort from each other's presence.

"I'm sorry I was such an ass, Gibbs. And I know it's a sign of weakness but I'm not an NCIS agent, so technically the rules don't apply to me yet," she apologized.

"You know my rules?" Gibbs asked smiling. She knew his rules!

"All fifty one of them," she confirmed. "But that's beside the point right now. I shouldn't have yelled at you or stormed out of NCIS like that."

"You don't have to apologize."

"Yes, I do," she assured him. "You didn't do anything wrong. You're trying to move on. Wish I could do the same."

"I wish it were that easy to move on, but I don't really think it's gonna work out with me and Hollis."

"Oh God no! Don't break up with her because of me!" She cried. "I didn't even really mean anything by leaving. Just a bad day."

"It's not because of you, Emily. I promise," he guaranteed, calming her down. "It's not gonna work out because I don't love her and if two chances with her hasn't changed that, I don't think I ever will. It's not fair to her to keep leading her on."

"Still, I'm sorry, Gibbs," she sighed.

"You know you don't have to call me Gibbs," he told her, testing the waters.

"Well, what do you want me to call you?" she asked, smirking. Oh she is her mother's daughter.

"You could call me Dad, if you want," he finally said, cautiously taking the plunge.

"Alright, Dad," she laughed before falling serious again. "So where do we go from here."

He was quiet for a moment. He thought a lot about this on the flight here and he really wanted to be in his daughter's life the way a real father should be. The only thing was he didn't know if she would want that. "I'd like to be your father. I have an empty house and plenty of room, but I understand if you're not ready for that."

"Dad…" she started, but he still had more to say.

"I know you came to D.C. for emancipation. I can't give you that, but if you really want to live on your own, I'll help you find a place and I'll pay for everything. But I will be in your life." He added the last part firmly, leaving no room for argument.

"Good," she smirked before hopping off the roof and landing safely on the ground, showing him she could quite possibly give him a run for his money in causing trouble. "So that spare bedroom of yours better come with my own bathroom because I don't really see you as much of a sharer," she hollered up, surprising him. When she said good, he assumed she meant to living on her own.

Smiling, he jumped down after her. "I think that can be arranged. So when we get back, you got any schools in mind?"

"I already worked everything out with Sacred Heart High School. It was associated with my old elementary school."

"That sounds pretty fancy..." It wasn't that he didn't have the money or that he wasn't willing to spend it. I was more that his only experience with kids and schools was Kelly and Shannon had wanted her to attend public school like the two of them had. But now that he thought more about it, sending her daughter to top private schools was something Jenny would do and he found himself liking that idea. His daughter was smart and she deserved the best.

Emily simply laughed at his attempt to process everything, bending down to pick up the hammer that had fallen. "Don't worry. Mom's paying for everything. All you have to do is sign the paperwork."

At the word paperwork, Gibbs let out a big groan. He already had a million overdue mission reports to fill out and the last thing he wanted was more paperwork. Smiling, Emily lightly punched him in the arm. "Better get used to it. You're a parent now, Dad. Paperwork comes with the territory."

"Great," he moaned, slinging an arm around her shoulder. "So how much stuff you got?"

"Relax, Dad. That's the beauty of FedEx. I'll have it all shipped up."

"Works for me. Why don't we start packin up?" He said leading her into the house. "Oh and by the way. Ziva and Abby plan to kidnap you the second our plane touches down. Somethin 'bout needing some girl time since they haven't seen you in a month."

"Yea that sounds like them," laughed Emily. "I'm just surprised you agreed."

"Well, until your stuff arrives in D.C. all your spare things are at their places. Plus, they didn't exactly give me much of a choice."

"Sounds like a plan to me. Besides you and I will have plenty of time to spend together."

"Plenty of time," he reiterated, planting a kiss to her head. "I love you, sweetheart."

"I love you too, Dad." _ 'I love you too, Dad.'_ God he like the sound of that!

[][][][][][]

She always thought it would be easy to leave. Always thought it would be like a person's first time diving off the high dive. You just take a deep breath and take the plunge. After all, living on a remote beach, with no TV, and only your insane 'uncle,' was not exactly every sixteen year old kid's dream life. But now that she was finally leaving, finally had the opportunity to go back where she belonged, she wasn't so sure that's what she wanted anymore.

Everything was all packed up in boxes. All loaded up in the bed of Uncle Mike's rundown, yet amazingly still operable, old pickup. He and her father took off to bring it all to the local FedEx office a while back, so she decided to take one last walk on the beach before she had to readjust to life in the city once more.

Starting off down the beach she wondered if her mother would be happy to see her and her father finally getting the chance to spend time together. She would be, Emily concluded. Jenny had always wanted the opportunity for all three of them to be a real family. Yes, her mom would want her to do this, so she would, no matter how hard it seemed like it would be.

And it certainly seemed like it was going to be hard! Was she ready to confront the reality of life in D.C. without her mother? Was she ready to leave her sanctuary here, where sometimes she could forget? Could she walk down the same streets she and her mother used to? Could she go to school with the same kids who would expect a black town car with a redhead passenger to pick her up every day? Could she walk passed the burned remnants of her old house and not think of the life she and her mother could have had?

Mexico was a safe haven from all that, a place of refuge from the haunting of her past, and Emily didn't know if she could leave that just yet. And, while she would never admit it out loud knowing he would never let her hear the end of it, she was actually going to miss Uncle Mike. His support and understanding had been her anchor, the only thing that kept her from completely losing it. He knew when to push and when to leave her be and balanced it all in a manner that somehow got her up every morning and through each day.

Then again, maybe that was the problem. Uncle Mike told her at sixteen, simply getting through the day was not healthy. She needed to move one with her life, find away to piece everything back together. And D.C. was the one place she would be forced to confront that fact every day.

"It's not as easy as it seems, is it?" a gruff voice from behind pointed out, startling her.

She yelped, jumping in surprise for the second time today. At least this time she didn't have a hammer in her hands. God, Tony was right; he really does appear out of nowhere. She turned around, glaring at her father for scaring her. "Didn't mean to scare you," he chuckled.

"Sure you didn't," she laughed. "So, what's not as easy as it seems?"

"Leaving the place you feel safe, the place you can hide from reality," he sighed. God, that was an understatement. He had no idea what this place provided her.

She started to walk further down the beach, smiling when he fell right into step behind her. Accepting she would not be getting away this time, she stopped and stared out at the horizon. "Sometimes I wake up and think that it was just a horrible nightmare, that she couldn't possibly be dead, you know?" she sighed.

"Yea, I know that feeling well."

She was quite for a moment, before continuing, "Sometimes I think she's just going to walk down the path like she used to and everything will be okay." For a while, that was all she said before deciding to explain, "I used to say her a lot when it was a kid. Whenever Mom would catch wind The Frog might be nearby or might be making a move somewhere, I'd come stay here with Uncle Mike and when it was all over she would come back and get me."

She could feel his eyes on her, but she kept her focus trained on the horizon. She knew he wanted to ask what everyone always seemed to want to ask. He probably had a million questions about The Frog, but in the end he restrained himself from answering. Something she was extremely grateful for. If there was anyone who could weasel the truth out of her, she guess it would probably be him at some point down the road, but for now her secret would remain her own.

"I know movin on is hard," he said instead of what she knew he wanted to ask. "I still haven't really figured out how to do so myself, but maybe we can help each other along the way."

"Maybe," she agreed, finally turning towards him. "First things first, though."

"What's that?" he asked curiously.

"We have to catch our plane back to D.C."

"That we do," he laughed, as they started up the beach towards Mike's house. Smiling as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, she realized maybe just maybe she and her father would be alright, after all.


	6. Two Steps Back

Chapter six: Two Steps Back

_Authors Note: So it was more like three days than two, but I forgot to take into account it was Easter weekend and all my friends would be home from their various colleges. Hope you all enjoy and thanks for reading & for your awesome reviews!_

**November 2005**

"And this was the night I found out I was pregnant with you…" Jenny started recall, faltering slightly at the memory. A few hours earlier, Emily came home from an afternoon with Ziva to find Jenny flipping through a photo album of her and Jethro's time in Paris. Jenny had already poured through the albums of their earlier partnership throughout the better part of the afternoon. Emily skipped up to her cautiously, unsure if Jenny would want her to join. Smiling Jenny patted the spot next to her saying she would tell Emily some more about her father. As Emily curled up to Jenny's side on the couch, Jenny flipped back to the start of the album and begun to share the memories she had of the time she and Jethro had been so freely and openly in love.

But this memory…this one hit her hard. As she stared at the photo of herself wrapped in Jethro's big coat, with her head resting on his shoulder, as they waited for dinner at their favorite outdoor café, Jenny was cursed with the memory of the one evening she had seriously considered telling Jethro about the young life that was growing inside her. "I was so excited," she said hugging Emily closer into her side. "I brought your father out to our favorite restaurant that night and we sat outside so we could see the Eiffel Tower despite the fact it was freezing outside."

"What happened?" Emily asked, as if sensing there was something about this story making Jenny upset.

"Well…I never got to tell your father our wonderful news. We never even got to eat dinner because we caught wind of some important information about our mission and had to follow up on it," Jenny explained. Oh how she wished they never got interrupted because the next day when reality started to really sink in, Jenny realize she could never tell him the truth. They had a mission to complete, Jethro was still engaged to Stephanie, and on top of it all was the conversation she heard Jethro and Decker having about him not wanting children of his own.

"It's okay," Emily quietly assured her. "Someday, Mommy…someday." Tearing up at her daughter's words, Jenny pulled Emily up into her lap and hugged her tightly. "You bet, baby girl. Someday," Jenny assured, knowing the second she knew Jethro was ready to be a father, she would not hesitate any longer.

[][][][][][]

_ Jenny watched from the stairs, as Jethro entertained their daughter at his desk. With Jenny stuck in a meeting with SecNav in MTAC earlier, Stanley picked Emily up from school that day and dropped her off to spend the afternoon with her father. Much to Jenny's enjoyment, after her tough meeting ended, she exited MTAC to look down and find Jethro spinning Emily around in his arms laughing. _

_ Jenny crept down the stairs, thankful that the two were too lost in their own world to notice her watching over them. "Want to see something cool?" she heard Jethro ask Emily._

_ "You aren't gonna show me that glove trick again, are you?" teased Emily._

_ "Awe come on! You love it!" laughed Jethro. Jenny smiled, knowing he never tired of seeing all the things Emily picked up on. Jethro would constantly tell her Emily was going to make a hell of an agent someday, something they were both excited to see._

_ "Fine," Emily agreed. "But if you make my hair staticy again…"_

_ "I won't," Jethro assured, holding his hands up in pretend defeat. "I promise," he reiterate picking the girl up and planting her back down in her seat. Digging a latex glove out of his desk, he started to blow it up, watching his daughter laugh at his antics. After he finished, he glanced towards the stairs, smiling when he noticed Jenny standing there. Sending her a wink, he decided against finishing the trick and proceeded to rub the glove on top of their daughter's head._

_ "Daddy!" Emily shrieked, laughing. "You promised!"_

_ "Couldn't help myself," he shrugged, laughing as she punched him in the arm before attempting to keep her long red hair from sticking up._

"New hires just keep getting younger, eh Madame Director?" Agent DiNozzo joked, drawing reluctantly back to reality where she was observing Jethro with a young boy involved in their latest case and not her daughter. He was just so amazing with children that she could hardly prevent the onslaught of dreams of Jethro interacting with Emily from bombarding her.

Back in the real world, she took one last fleeting look at Jethro, imagining once more that a red head girl was sitting in Zach's place, before finally turning her attention to Agent DiNozzo and Ziva. "Obviously, you didn't get the memo, Agent DiNozzo," Jenny laughed. After a few times of Jethro rolling her title off in that special way, she had been left with little options other than to ban the whole agency from calling her Madame.

"What memo?" He asked, nervously glancing back and forth between Jenny and Ziva who were both wearing large grins.

"The one where it explains the next person who calls her Madame gets keel-hauled. Whatever that is," Ziva informed him, while Jenny tried her hardest not to burst out laughing.

"It's uh…" Tony started to try and explain, not really sure how to being.

"Unpleasant," Jenny finished for him and the two shared a knowing smirk. "Tell Gibbs I want him upstairs," Jenny told Ziva, who nodded and Jenny feared Ziva knew exactly what Jenny had been dreaming about before she and Tony interrupted.

Jenny hurried up the stairs to wait on the catwalk for Jethro, taking deep breaths to try and relax herself. This case was giving her an opening to start to ask what she always wanted to know, but never got the courage to ask. Instead, relying on the answer he provided Decker. After last night's trip down memory lane and promise to Emily that one day she would tell Jethro that they have a child, Jenny knew she could not let this opportunity pass her by.

She followed his every move as he ascended the stairs and crossed the catwalk to her. When he drew near, she took one final deep breath and took the plunge. "Always admired your way with children. Ever think of having any of your own?"

"That an offer, Jen?" he asked and she could see he surprised by her question. She laughed unsuprised by his not so serious answer.

She took a moment to decide if she should take that as a lead in and joke that maybe she wouldn't mind offering such a thing, but in the end thought it best not to. Yes, they had been flirting quite a bit lately and were drawing closer, but she doubted they were ready for anything serious just yet. "No, it wasn't an offer, Jethro. It was merely an observation," she said, glad to see him laughing at her response.

After a moment, the laughing drew quiet and he actually turned serious for a moment. "You know why I get along with kids so well? Because when they lie they don't have the guile to get away with it," he said, letting her know that, while he may not know what it was, he did know there was something more to her question than she was telling him.

She stood their stunned, not even sure what to say. A part of her was shocked that he could always pick up on when she was holding something back and the other part of her was shocked that his favorite thing about children was that they couldn't get away with a lie.

After going over just how serious this case was and that if Project Honor was compromised their intelligence networks would be cripple for a long while, Jenny watched Jethro hurry down the stairs completely convinced that Commander Tanner had not faked his own kidnapping. Jenny, on the other hand, was starting to worry Jethro's attachment to Zach was starting to compromise his judgment on the case. From that worry, she couldn't help but wonder if he would ever show such attachment to his own daughter or if he would push her away once she got better at lying.

After the previous day's rather interesting conversation with Jethro, Jenny had taken kindly to avoiding him for the better part of the morning. Only after her second teleconference with the Directors of the FBI and Homeland Security in the past two days, did Jenny realize, she seriously needed to have a talk with Jethro about this case. After checking all of his usual hangouts, she finally managed to find Ziva, who informed her that Jethro had gone down to Abby's lab.

Riding the elevator down, she was seriously regretting the fact that this conversation would more than likely put their past two months of friendship in jeopardy. As the doors opened on the correct floor, she went to step out, crashing right into the man himself. "You getting off, Director?"

After recovering from their close encounter, she took a step back to allow him to enter. "Looking for you actually." Once the doors closed, Jenny finally decided she better get this over with. "I saw Ducky's report on the body downstairs."

"That was fast," Jethro commented surprised. He just left Autopsy ten minutes ago.

"One of the perks of being Director. I get to read all the good reports," she joked trying to get their typical banter back that they seemed to have lost after yesterday. "What's next Jethro?" she asked and ironically the doors opened on his floor.

Jethro answered with, "Finishing this conversation."

Pressing the button to take them up to the top floor, Jenny argued, "Don't give me a hard time."

"I didn't realize I was," he said but Jenny could tell he knew full well what he was doing.

"The man who supposedly kidnapped Commander Tanner is lying dead in our autopsy room. Tanner is looking less and less like a victim," she explained, reiterating the points she and her fellow directors agreed upon earlier that morning.

"You want back in the field again, Jen?" he asked, walking out of the elevator. God, he was so annoying! And did he really have to bring that up in _every_ conversation?

Before he could get away, she grabbed his arm, spinning him to face her once more so she could finish trying to explain how important this truly was. "Tanner has technology that could set back out intelligence monitoring thirty years. Pardon me for taking an interest."

"And here I thought you just wanted an excuse to spend time together," he joked, pointing out that she had been recently finding more and more reasons to see him.

As much as she wanted to continue off on that route, she knew they needed to finish their Director-Agent conversation first. "I just want to know that this is about more than a fatherless child to you," she pointed out. She already had one fatherless child to worry about; she did not need a second one.

Unfortunately for her, McGee interrupted their conversation to inform Gibbs one of Commander Tanner's colleagues had arrived and Jethro immediately left with McGee before they could finish their professional conversation, let along dive into their personal one. She was starting to see a pattern here.

By the time she got home that evening, after several more stressful meeting over Gibbs apparent lack of concern for Project Honor, Ziva and Emily were already dressed and waiting for their fancy dinner out at Valentino's. "Mommy!" Emily cried running up and jumping into her arms.

"Hey, pretty girl," Jenny greeted, admiring the girl's purple sequin dress. Carrying the girl further into the hall, so she could shut the door, Jenny greeted Ziva and noted her low-cut red dress would definitely have Agent DiNozzo drooling if he'd been invited this evening. "So, I have to stop by Agent Gibbs place on the way to dinner tonight, if you ladies don't mind," Jenny said, transferring Emily back to the ground so she could go get ready for their girls night out.

"We do not mind, Jen," Ziva laughed, sharing a sneaky smile with Emily, leaving Jenny wondering what those two were up too.

"Yea…I bet Agent Gibbs is gonna just _love_ Mom's new dress," Emily deviously told Ziva loud enough for Jenny to hear as she walked up the stairs.

Eyes widening, Jenny ran back downstairs watching the two planning out just how they thought that exchange would go over. "Oh Jenny, I could just eat you up," Emily laughed the best deep voice she could must.

"Oh, Agent Gibbs! I do not know what to say. You look pretty hot yourself in that sexy NCIS t-shirt," Ziva tried to impersonate Jenny.

"Perhaps you should have dinner with me instead."

"Why Gibbs I…" Ziva started to respond, until Jenny decided she'd heard enough.

"Are you two done?" she called, halting their impersonations. "Maybe the better option would be to just run over there quickly and then come back here and change for dinner."

"Don't do that, Mommy," Emily objected. "You gotta wear your dress so Agent Gibbs can tell you how…_hot_… you look," she explained, attempting to use the word Ziva just taught her. No doubt it was also Ziva who told her about the tension between her and Gibbs. She should, however, at least be thankful Ziva had called him Gibbs and not Jethro in her conversation with the girl.

But this exchange also left Jenny wondering what had gotten into her daughter. Just two nights ago they had been promising each other someday they would both be reunited with Emily's father. Yet now the girl was trying to set her up with a man she believed not to be her father? Jenny had never really thought about dating up until now, assuming Emily would be against anyone who was not her father. Perhaps she would be more supportive than Jenny originally believed?

"She is correct, Jenny. You must wear the dress when you go see Gibbs. If he is not blinded by the sparkles in it, he certainly will be by how gorgeous you look," Ziva agreed.

Sighing, Jenny finally gave into the two of them, starting to believe it might actually be fun to mess with Jethro's head a little bit. After changing and redoing her makeup, Jenny ventured back downstairs to see the two had picked up right where they left off in their rendition of what they believed would happen when Jenny went over to Gibbs' place. Obviously the two were forgetting Zach was staying there. "Did you guys want to go to dinner tonight or do you prefer to stay home and make up stories about me?"

Jumping off the couch, the two quickly ran to the closet to grab their coats. They had been looking forward to this evening all week and she knew the two would not want to miss out. "You two realize he is going to want to know why I am all dressed up. He always knows when I'm lying"

"Tell him you are going on a date. I mean technically you are," Ziva suggested.

"Just don't mention it's with Ziva and me. Or, well, just Ziva I guess, since he doesn't know about me," Emily added excitedly.

"Oh, yes. That is good! Use that!" Ziva agreed, giving Emily a high five. Jenny just shook her head, as she started out to the car. Originally she had believed Jethro would be the death of her, but these two were becoming a close second.

Jenny found him and Zach in the basement, not that she would expect anything else. Jethro looked up from his workbench at the clicking of her heels on the stairs and mumbled something she couldn't hear. By the appreciative glance he was giving her, she had a funny feeling it was something along the lines of Emily and Ziva's predictions. "Dinner at the White House?" he asked.

Inwardly debating in her head if she should just go along with that or not, Jenny realized he would probably just call her out on her lie as always. So instead, feeling courageous, she went with her daughter's suggestion. "A date, actually," she said, leaving out the part that it was with her daughter and Ziva.

"Must be an important guy for you to get all decked out." And there he was again calling her out on the fact that, while she was telling the truth, she was still leaving something out. Damn him!

Instead of giving him the satisfaction of her correcting that it was with Ziva and not a guy, she simply smiled allowing him to believe what he wanted. God, she could not believe she was actually following those two girls' advice. "I'd prefer if you just told me that you liked my dress."

And Jethro being Jethro, just smirked and turned back to his workbench, saying, "I haven't decided yet." Yea right he hadn't decided yet, after staring at her chest for majority of their conversation thus far.

Taking note of the time, she decided that, as much fun as this was, if she did not hurry up they were going to miss their extremely-difficult-to-get reservations. Turning to Zach, who was watching their exchange curiously while sanding Jethro's boat, she asked, "Do you mind giving us a moment?"

Sensing they would need privacy for this moment, Jethro suggested, "Zach, why don't you go upstairs and grab a soda." At Jethro's suggestion, Zach instantly put his sander down and hurried off upstairs. Okay so 'Do you mind giving us a moment?' was probably not one of her finer mom moments, but in her defense she was used to dealing with a highly advanced six year old.

Once Zach was upstairs, Jenny put her hand on her hip, insuring that the flap of her jacket opened to reveal more of her dress to Jethro. Oh Ziva and Emily were really starting to be a terrible influence on her. "How long do you plan on keeping Frank Connell locked up?"

"You make a house call to reprimand me, Jen?" he asked, not bothering to glance up from the workbench.

Sighing at his ignorance, she continued, "You got Commander Tanner's fingerprints on the bullets of a murder weapon."

"Well, I'm not sure he did it," Jethro reiterated once again, heading over to the other side of the boat to put some distance between them.

"Why?" she asked. If he just gave her a good enough reason for why he so desperately believed the man to be innocent, she would more than likely believe him. "And don't tell me your famous gut again," she added. She was so tired of his gut being his only excuse for ignoring what the evidence was telling him. When he didn't provide her with any other explanation, she decided it was time to drive the point home. "Zach is a great kid, Jethro. Doesn't mean his father's not a bastard."

"He might be," Jethro consented. "But Zach is our only link to him."

"You think he might make another attempt to get Zach back?" She asked surprised before realizing that not even having Gibbs conducting the protective custody would keep her from trying to get Emily back if she were in Commander Tanner's position.

"If he does, I'll be waiting for him," Jethro said in a tone that made her really glad she was not in Tanner's shoes.

"My dad didn't do anything wrong," a voice cried from the top of the stairs, causing Jenny and Jethro to glance up in surprise.

"It's a complicated situation," Jenny tried to explain, instantly determining she had been spoiled by having Emily as her child.

"It's not!" he objected.

"Zach…" Jenny started before Jethro took over.

"Zach, there is evidence he did something wrong."

"It doesn't matter. I know in my…my stomach he didn't do anything wrong. You promised you'd bring him back to me, Gibbs. Please," Zach begged. Jenny couldn't help but admire the unbreakable trust Zach had for his father and wondered if Emily would feel the same about Jenny if she were in Zach's shoes or if her ability to understand what having evidence meant would overrule that.

"We will do whatever it takes to bring him back to you, Zach," Jenny told the child surprising Jethro.

"Thanks," Zach said, accepting that he won.

After a shared look with Jethro, Jenny turned toward the stairs. "I should be going, but I promise, Zach. We will find him," she assured patting his head on the way out, finally seeing what Jethro had seen all along.

[][][][][][]

"Are you sure you are going to be okay in here by yourself, baby girl?" Jenny asked, as she finished converting her office couch into a bed for her daughter. Everyone at NCIS had been called in when two assassins who were hired to assassinate someone at the Marine Corps Birthday Ball tomorrow evening turned up dead. Ducky was downstairs with Jethro going over what he needed to know for their autopsies and Ziva had gone undercover with Tony posing as the two assassins in the hopes of bringing down the man who hired them, so now Jenny was stuck at work all night and all her babysitters were therefore also occupied, as well.

"Mommy, I'm at NCIS with how many agents?" Emily laughed at the fact that her mother was still worried about her safety in probably the safest place for her.

"I know…I know. It's just I'm going to have to be in MTAC with Agent Gibbs for the night and…"

"I'll be fine, Mommy. I'm just going to sleep," Emily said hopping up on her makeshift bed with her blanket.

"Okay," Jenny laughed, knowing the girl was right. "Now, I'll try and come in before it's time for you to get up, but if not I've set an alarm and Stanley will be here to take you to school. Oh and…"

"Mom, go to work!" Emily ordered giggling.

"I'm going!" Jenny said, tucking the girl in and kissing the top of her head. "Sweet dreams, baby girl," she whispered before leaving her daughter to sleep in peace.

Jenny joined Jethro in MTAC just as McGee checked in saying he was heading up to Ziva and Tony's hotel room to sweep for bugs and set up the video cameras and microphones. "Nice of you to join us, Jen," joked Jethro, as Jenny slipped on her headset.

"Oh shut up, Jethro!"

Jethro never got the chance to continue their banter because McGee had finished adjusting the camera and he noticed Tony and Ziva looking rather comfortable in bathrooms. DiNozzo was also providing them with quite the view, Jenny noted amused. "Comfortable, DiNozzo?"

"Well, yeah. I'm working on it. Why do you ask?" DiNozzo asked helping himself to some champagne, not noticing his robe slipping open.

"We're looking at you, Agent DiNozzo. All of you," Jenny informed him, sparing him whatever reprimand Jethro would have thrown at him.

Horrified, Tony glanced down and quickly tied his robe tighter. "Ah…sorry about that."

"DiNozzo!" Jethro said disapprovingly. Looks like he was going to let Tony have it anyway. "What the hell are you doing? You're married assassins. You're not visiting the Playboy mansion."

'_Playboy mansion? Nice touch, Jethro.'_ If anyone knew what she and Jethro used to do while on their undercover missions, neither of them would still be working for NCIS or any other law enforcement agency for that matter.

The phone in the hotel room rang and Jenny ordered Ziva to answer it. As Ziva chatted with whoever it was on the other line, she pulled out the Bible and opened it, holding it up so Jenny and Jethro could see the cell phone sitting inside it. Ziva hung up the phone and turned back to Tony. "The concierge. We were able to get into the dining room after all, my love," Ziva announced, speaking in code so that anyone else listening wouldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"That wasn't the concierge. That was their contact," Jethro said, stating the obvious. Did he really believe that after years of undercover work with him she did not know when a contact was calling?

As Tony and Ziva started to get ready for their dinner reservations, Jenny made herself comfortable in the front row of MTAC. It was going to be a long night. Pushing his headset down to rest around his neck, Jethro turned to Jenny. "Remind me again why the two of us are not handling this. Those two have no experience in undercover work, certainly not at this level."

Smiling at the fact that they'd gone through this about a hundred times today, Jenny started to explain for the hundred and oneth time. "Because, Jethro. I'm Director now and would more than likely be recognized by one of the guests staying at the hotel. Trust me, if it weren't for that, I would much rather it be the two of us in that hotel room."

Smirking, he walked over to her placing a hand on her thigh, whispering, "Would have been worth the risk in my opinion," before he hurried off to meet Abby.

When he returned a few hours later, Jenny was still trying to get her heart rate under control from when he'd ran his hand along her thigh and the images he'd conjured up of what they could be doing in that hotel room. "Abby's put together all the photos DiNozzo took during his dinner," Jethro informed her, pulling up a slideshow of all the males present at the restaurant.

"What makes you think the target's a male? Did you forget I'll be there?" Jenny asked, while also wondering why on Earth she was so upset that she wasn't considered for a target.

"Nope," he assured her. "Whoever set up the hit referred to the collar as a man."

"You made contact?" Jenny asked surprised. This was probably the type of thing she should know.

"Ziva got a pay-phone call," Jethro finally informed her.

"You trace it?" she asked before she realized what a stupid question that was, but of course he wasn't going to let it slide.

Snapping his fingers, he joked, "Gee, why didn't I think of that?"

"Sorry, Jethro. I'm a little tired," she apologized as he sat down next to her.

"Yea, well, you never could pace yourself very well." Oh he did not just go there! She could hardly be blamed for being so attracted to him. It was his own damn fault! She couldn't take his constant teasing during their love making. It was only natural, she took control. And he could hardly be considered innocent when it came to pacing himself either.

"I have one word for you, Jethro. Positano."

"Come on," he objected. "That was a week after I took a bullet."

"Uh-huh," she laughed. While that may be true, he all but came apart the second they'd gotten their clothes off. She certainly didn't need to worry about foreplay that time.

They sat there a while longer, chatting about the most recent updates of the mission before Jethro couldn't help but suggest she get some rest. "Nothing's gonna happen tonight. Tony and Ziva are hitting the rack. All the backup teams are in place around the hotel. Why don't you go grab forty on the couch in your office."

Oh, if he only knew who was currently occupying that couch! No, that simply would not be possible with the young girl fast asleep in there. "I just need a little coffee."

"Yeah? And when the caffeine jolt ends?" he asked concerned. She never had been good at these all nighters.

"I'll do what you do," she teased. "Get a refill."

"You're not me," he pointed out.

"Chauvinist," she argued back, smiling.

Laughing, he conceded to her. "Yeah. Yeah…I guess. Good night, Jen," he added getting up to go continue his own work.

After watching Tony and Ziva at little while longer, Jenny eventually decided Jethro might have a point after all and headed back to her office. When Jenny made it back to her office, she realized just how exhausted she was and perhaps a short nap with her daughter might be a prudent course of action. However, when she opened the door, she heard the sound of tiny whimpers and looked to see Emily awake on the couch, hugging her knees to her chest, crying. Hurrying to the girl, Jenny knelt down in front of her, running a comforting hand up and down Emily's arm. "Hey, baby. It's okay. Tell Mommy what happened."

Her only response was Emily lunging forward, wrapping her arms around her mother's neck nearly knocking her backwards. Wrapping her own arms securely around Emily, she lifted the girl up and sat down on the couch so Emily could cry it out on her shoulder. "Did someone come in here and bother you?" Jenny asked, fearing Jethro may have come in to see if Jenny had taken his advice.

She felt her daughter's head shake 'no' and Jenny sighed, fearing the worst. "Did you have a bad dream?" After feeling Emily nod her head, Jenny asked, "About Cairo?" After a few minutes pause, Emily finally nodded her head once more. "Oh, baby girl, it's okay. Everything's going to be okay," Jenny said rubbing soothing circles over the girl's back. "No one is going to hurt you. Not now…not ever," Jenny added with resolve. She would never let anything happen to Emily ever again. She would make sure of that, even if it ended up being the last thing she ever did.

Despite Emily's protests and persistent pestering that she was fine, Jenny called her out sick from school. Emily could insist that she was fine all she wanted, but Jenny had enough experience to know the best course of action was to keep Emily close. It was what Emily's therapist had suggested to Jenny a few years back and had been proven right with Emily always practically being attached to her hip the day following a Cairo nightmare. So while Jenny spent the majority of the morning on a conference call trying to explain to the Director of the FBI why she was currently running an undercover operation that should fall under FBI jurisdiction without informing him, Emily sat at her conference room table pretending to draw quietly while actually listening in awe as her mother all but told off the Director of the FBI.

Of course, Jethro had surprisingly been some help with the FBI having made a rather respectable compromise with Fornell, for which she was ever grateful for. However he had also taken to being a pain in the ass at her insistence they have their meeting on the catwalk outside MTAC instead of in her office.

"_How do I explain to the director of the FBI that we're running an undercover op in his jurisdiction without informing him?"she had asked coming out of her office to meet him on the catwalk._

"_With a smile," Jethro had joked, being totally unhelpful. God she had wanted to strangle him! This was all his fault, after all. He was the one who came up with the idea of sending two people undercover as the two assassins. He was the one who convinced her that it was a totally and completely brilliant plan in which nothing could possibly go wrong. The only say she had gotten was to send Tony and Ziva in instead of herself and Jethro because of there was too high a risk her cover could be blown._

_Now she was seriously starting to regret that decision! She should have just dug out that old brown wig she used on their previous undercover ops in Europe and gone with Jethro's original plan. Tony and Ziva barely had any undercover experience, let alone done any undercover work at this level. Jethro had been right, yet again. And that was probably what pissed her off the most about the situation. "It is not funny, Gibbs," she had said sternly, stealing his coffee._

"_They had intel the two assassins were going to hit a target at the Marine Corps Birthday Ball. Did you get that memo?" he had pointed out, giving her some leverage to use over the Director of the FBI._

"_No. Why didn't I think of that?" she had asked, annoyed with herself. She was the Director; it was her job to recognize these things and use them to her advantage._

"_Because you're exhausted. I told you get some sleep," he had ordered in his no-nonsense tone. "And do that before you take on the director of the FBI."_

_He acted if this was so simple! She had stayed up all night with traumatized child and needed to stay awake to insure Emily would be okay for the rest of the day if Jenny was going to be able to leave her with Ziva while she went to the ball. Not to mention she had to oversee Tony and Ziva's mission, make nice with the Director of the FBI, and still do her everyday work that was piling up. "I can't, Jethro," she had told him tiredly, already exhausted just thinking about all she had to do._

"_I can fix this," he promised her._

"_How?"_

"_You're not the only one around here who know how to play politics." _

_He was joking…he had to be joking! There was no possible way he could be seriously telling her that he could handle the political nightmare that this undercover operation seemed to be creating. "You're not serious?" Only he just looked at her with a very serious expression on his face that almost convinced her to simply give in to him…almost. As much as she would love to allow him to handle the situation, she was pretty sure Jethro shooting everyone involved would only create more problems for her in the long run. "You're idea of politics usually involves some form of physical violence."_

"_Well, you know what they say, Jen? You can't make an omelet unless you break a few eggs," he had said hurrying off, leaving her rather curious to see how his 'political negotiation' would work out._

She hated to admit it and certainly wouldn't even under duress, but Jethro and Fornell's form of politics did in fact smooth the road over for her conversation with the Director of the FBI. He also helped in that when she used his point the FBI knew about an assassination plan for an event she, herself, would be attending and did not inform her, not only gave her leverage over her fellow director, but also impressed her daughter. Her victory over the Director of the FBI had provided an alternative subject for Emily to dwell on instead Cairo. So much to Jenny's excitement, Emily distracted herself by asking Jenny all sorts of questions about her job. NCIS better watch out or Jenny wouldn't be the only Shepard to become Director of NCIS.

With Emily much more relaxed than earlier in the morning, Jenny felt more confident about going to the ball tonight. Still she thought it best to test the waters a bit before the big plunge, so she told Emily she was just going to go work with Agents Gibbs and Fornell in MTAC for a while and to call her if she needed anything.

While she may have gotten to MTAC just in time for the operation to go down, she was thankfully not greeted by a 'nice of you to join us' as she was last time. They needed to stay focused on the task at hand. After all, she was starting to get a bad feeling about this. "This reminds me of our op in the former Czech Republic," she told Jethro, knowing he would understand what she meant.

"You took a round to the thigh," Jethro reminded her, not liking the worry she was drawing up inside him.

"I had the same bad feeling before that op too," Jenny said, trying to shake off the memory of him taking such good care of her and then slowly making love to her when she was healed. God, she should never have brought the subject up!

Still staring uncomfortably at Jenny, worried about what had gotten into her today, Jethro reminded Tony and Ziva, "We're not taking any chances on this one. First sign it goes bad, you call it."

She should have done what Gibbs always taught her to do and follow her damn gut. Everything was telling her to notify the FBI and flood that hotel with agents, but no. Instead she followed _Gibbs'_ gut and stayed the course of this op. Now they had lost contact with Tony and Ziva and had no way of knowing if their cover had been blown or not.

So when it came time to determine where to go from here, Jenny made sure to go with her own gut. "We wait," she told Fornell. She trusted Ziva to get the job done. She was the best agent she knew, aside from Gibbs. No matter what happened, Ziva could handle it. After giving her orders, Jenny glanced over at Gibbs who she did not think ever looked more proud of her. She could only hope her decision would pay off in the end.

And in the end, she had indeed made the correct decision in following her gut and just in time for her to change for the ball quickly in her office. She had asked Ducky to escort her, but knowing Jethro was downstairs, she was starting to question if she was making the right decision in her personal life. After pinning her hair up, she turned to Emily spinning around so that her daughter could take in her whole appearance. "So…everything look okay?"

"You look so pretty, mommy!" Emily exclaimed, practically jumping up and down. "I still think you should have asked Agent Gibbs."

"You and Ziva both," laughed Jenny. Bending down to the girl's height, she glanced her over trying to determine if Emily was truly as fine as she was acting. "Are you sure you will be okay tonight? I don't plan on staying too long. I want to make sure to be home before you go to sleep…"

"I'll be fine, Mommy," Emily assured her, though it did nothing to stop Jenny from worrying. She would only stay a short while at the Ball, not wanting Emily to wake up alone if she had another nightmare. While Ziva was good with Emily, there were still aspects of interacting with kids she needed to work on and Jenny knew it would be best if she herself were there to comfort the girl.

"Okay, but if you change your mind, just call me and I will be home in a jiffy," Jenny reiterated for what must have been the hundredth time. "Now, Auntie Ziva's going to come upstairs to get you soon. She may have Agent DiNozzo with her, but after today, I have a feeling he's not going to let her near the driver's seat of his car." Jenny highly doubted Tony would trust Ziva to drive him home, but they agreed if he did they would simply go with the story of Emily being Jenny's goddaughter, as they usually did, and let Tony think whatever he wanted.

After Emily practically kicked her out of the office, Jenny ventured down the stairs to meet Ducky, trying to hold her head up high knowing Gibbs and his entire team were watching her. Ever the gentleman, Ducky met her at the bottom of the stairs and extended his arm out to her. They stopped in front of the team for a moment and she shared a look with Gibbs that told her she had not seen the last of him this evening. Ignoring Ducky's knowing look, she started to lead Ducky to the elevator adding her typical sway to her hips, telling Gibbs she knew exactly what his look had been telling her.

Taking Ducky to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball had turned out to be a fantastic choice. It provided her the opportunity to finally really catch up on everything that had been going on with him recently, as well as the chance to talk freely about everything going on with Emily. "She's still having nightmares, Ducky. I don't know what else I can do to help her. We've been through therapy. I quit fieldwork so I could spend more time with her and she could quit worrying about me all the time."

"My dear, you are doing everything you could possibly do as her mother simply by being there for her and providing her with all the love and support you can give," Ducky assured her. "Emily is a strong kid. I think with some more time she will be fine."

"It's just so hard to watch her hurting. Well, actually she's not even hurting. It's like she cries a bit and then pretends like nothing's wrong. I wish she would just talk to me. I still don't know what happened back then. I mean how can I help her if I don't even know what horrible things she's dreaming about?"

"Jenny…" Ducky said, placing a hand on her shoulder soothingly, trying to help her not burst out crying in the middle of the Ball. "Emily was unharmed when you found her. My personal opinion would be she's more scared for you than anything else. That was the one point in time where she didn't know where you were or if you were okay."

"Ducky, how can she be worried about me? I mean yes, she does become extremely clinging the day after a nightmare, but it was her who was in danger!" Jenny asked in shock.

"You were injured during the rescue mission, were you not?"

"Yes, but…"

"Well, that's it then, my dear. The only time she was ever separated from you for an extended period of time, you were seriously injured. It would appear that after having a nightmare of your separation, she psychologically fears something might happen to you and therefore does not want to leave your side."

Jenny smiled at the fact that it seemed Ducky had just gotten to what was most likely the root of the problem in one evening, whereas Emily's therapists had yet to do so in two years. "Seems like those Forensic Psychology classes are paying off. What do you recommend I do, Ducky?" Jenny asked, valuing his opinion over any of the therapist she'd been dealing with.

"I'd give her another month, have a few talks with her yourself to see if she'll open up, and if that doesn't work I know a number of therapists that would be happy to see her for a few sessions."

Feeling slightly more relaxed at having a better grasp on what might be bothering her daughter, Jenny kissed Ducky lightly on the cheek thanking him for always being there for her and her daughter. "Thank you, Ducky," she said before standing up from the table. "Now that dinner's finished, I think I'm just going to step out into the garden for a moment to call Emily. Perhaps hearing from me will help reassure her that I'm okay."

"I'm sure she'll appreciate that, my dear."

Jenny thankfully managed to doge the press and the various single men that always seemed to follow her around at these events. However, when she finally escaped the confides of the ballroom, she barely got the opportunity to take more than one breath of fresh air before she felt someone grab her arm and pull her off into the shadows. She tried to fight off her attacker only to stop when a deep voice growled, "Jen…it's me."

"Jethro! Are you crazy? I almost kneed you in the groin!" Jenny cried, furious at him for scaring her like that.

He simply chuckled and pulled her further away from the entryway to the ballroom. Finding a bench further out in the garden, he sat her down and then parked himself right next to her, leaving barely any space between them. "Why did you take Ducky tonight, Jen?" he asked jumping straight into it before he lost the nerve.

"Are you telling me you would have said yes?" Jenny asked, answering his question with a question, rather curious if he would have been ready to take that next step in their friendship.

"Are you telling me you thought I wouldn't?" he asked mimicking her.

They sat in silence for a while, neither really knowing how to approach the subject they both seriously needed to talk about. Sometimes with the two of them it was just easier to ignore everything, crack a few jokes and let that be the end of it. But this time…this conversation couldn't be like that. At least not if they wanted ever truly wanted to be friends again, or possibly something more someday down the road.

When she thought she couldn't bear the silence much longer, Jenny took a deep breath, knowing she had been the one to leave, so she would need to be the one to speak first. "I don't even know what to say, Jethro or where to begin. There's so much I want to say to you, so much I need to say to you…" It wasn't exactly the apology she wanted to give him and certainly wasn't the explanation she knew he must want to hear, but the first raw honesty in an answer that either of them had given the other in a long while.

"Yea…same here. There's always been so much I've wanted to tell ya, Jen. I've just never known how to say any of it. I suck at words, Jen. You know that."

"I don't think either of us has ever been very good at that, Jethro," Jenny sighed. After all, she'd left him a 'Dear John' letter for that very reason. She simply hadn't known what she could possibly say to express all that she was feeling. She knew he cared for her, knew he valued what they shared together, but she never knew if he _loved_ her. And she simply couldn't find a way to ask him without sounding like she was accusing him or worse pressuring him into saying something he didn't mean.

"You wanted her gone, Jen. She's gone," he informed her quietly that the woman she'd seen him escorting to the elevator a month ago was now an ex-girlfriend.

Her heart fluttered when she heard that, but another part of her was terrified. There was still so much to worry about. Her being Director and him her subordinate, though granted that never stopped them in the past. But would he find another redhead to marry, while once again only considering their relationship to be a heated affair. And then there was his track record with marriages and relationships itself. He'd been married and divorced three times. If they jumped right into everything now, would their relationship end the same? She and Jethro had a child together! A child who would depend on both of them. She knew in her heart she couldn't give into him until she knew she wouldn't be just another number to him. "Are we really ready for this, Jethro?" she whispered so softly, she wasn't even sure he heard her.

"Baby steps?" Jethro suggested and she smiled at the perfect suggestion. It would be like teaching Emily how to walk. It would take time and practice, but they would get there in the end. First they would relearn how to trust each other, how to read each other like an open book, and then one day it would be just like that first time in Marseille. Somehow they would simply just know when the time was right.

"Baby steps," Jenny agreed.

Nodding contently whit their arrangement, Jethro stood up and held a hand out to her to help her up. "Ducky will be worried about you."

Oh no! She had almost forgotten about Ducky, about the ball, and worst of all her security detail. They were probably in full blown panic mode, calling all the troops to look for her! But her guilt vanished away, the moment she looked up into Jethro's caring blue eyes and took his hand. Once he pulled her up from her seat, he gently cupped her face and brushed a light kiss to her forehead. "Au Revoir, Jen," he whispered before heading off into the dark of night.

She took a few steps towards the path back to the ballroom, before turning around. "Jethro?" she called, hoping he was still near enough to hear her.

"Yes, Jen?" his voice called out, though she couldn't see where he was in the dark.

"Just so I don't forget, I'd love for you to escort me to next year's ball."

There was silence for a moment and she feared he might have retreated away, but eventually he piped up, "As long as I can drink lots of bourbon to get me through it, I'd be happy to."

"Good," she said smiling. "It's a date," she added before heading back inside to find Ducky. _'Baby steps…well this is sure to be fun.'_

[][][][][][]

She should have known things couldn't have been that simple, couldn't have worked out just the way they planned. Nothing had ever been simple for her and Jethro, but she was seriously starting to believe that the universe was simply out to get them. It all started perfectly. They started talking more, went out to coffee once, asked each other how their day was going. She stopped looking over his shoulder and he stopped finding a way to point out she should have stayed a field agent in _every_ conversation. Yes, things had started to look up for the two of them. She even went so far as to think, if they kept to their current rate of progression, she might even feel comfortable introducing Jethro to Emily in a number of months. Probably at the end of Emily's school year, she had decided, so that Emily wouldn't have too much on her plate at one time.

But then, nearly two weeks on the dot, everything blew up in her face. Agent DiNozzo had somehow managed to piss someone off enough that they planted his bite mark on a pair of severed female legs and a glove with his fingerprints at the crime scene. And of course because nothing can ever be easy with Gibbs' team, whoever was behind it was smart enough not to leave any forensic evidence behind other than the evidence incriminating Agent DiNozzo. So while everyone including herself knew, Tony didn't kill anyone, she had no way to prove it to SecNav and the FBI.

Which left her here, in her office, having the first of what was sure to be multiple arguments with Jethro throughout the duration of this case. "Jethro, I know Agent DiNozzo didn't do this," she tried to explain, willing him to understand the predicament she, as Director, was in. He opened his mouth to comment, but fearing he was going to yell at her, she continued on with what she needed to say. "But I also know that it would be political suicide if we got caught investigating one of our own agents," she explained walking about the room in case he decided to head slap her for not playing into his hand.

He tired to interrupt once more, but she just couldn't let him. She knew he had enough on her, both professionally and personally, that he could manipulate her into doing whatever he wanted. "Appearances matter, Jethro. In this world, sometimes more than facts," she cried, knowing he would disagree. Well, actually not disagree, but rather not care. "It could ruin the agency. Look at Robert Novak and the CIA," she said trying to give him examples of the position she was in.

He started to give her 'the look' that told her if she didn't get to the point fast, he seriously would consider head slapping her. "You have a responsibility to your man, I know that," she said agreeing with the silent point she knew he would be making if she allowed him to speak. "But I have a responsibility to the entire agency."

"Jen!" he managed to squeeze in, but before he could get anything else out, she cut him off again.

"I'm not forgetting the time I stepped in it and you covered my ass until I could get out of it," she objected, deciding it best she bring it up before he could throw it in face and use it to make his point. "But that was alone, undercover, and in the field. Half of NCIS already knows about this," she tried to point out the differences between the two situations. Jenny managed to squeak out of her incident unscathed and without anyone at NCIS knowing anything about it. She could not cover up Agent DiNozzo's mess, when the gossip about it had already flown throughout the whole agency and probably outside the agency too. Hell agents were already placing bets on the outcome of the investigation! Jenny needed to maintain some level of control over the situation.

"I know what you have to do, Jethro, and I won't stop you. But officially, I am suspending you from investigating this further and I am turning over this investigation to the FBI," Jenny finally said, getting to the bottom line. Truthfully, she wanted Jethro to go to whatever lengths necessary to prove Tony innocent. She just needed Jethro to understand why, as Director, she had to do things that might not seem helpful to Jethro.

"I know," Jethro finally managed to get out, surprising Jen. He knew? And more importantly, he was okay with it? She thought for sure he would be biting her head off for this! "One request," he said, officially agreeing with her proposal.

"I'll see that Fornell runs the investigation," she agreed, reading his mind. Their baby steps had been going well up until this point and she was definitely starting to get back her special ability of reading Gibbs like a book.

When their meeting finally ended, Jenny still could not believe how well it turned out for them. Maybe taking this slow gradual approach with their personal life was benefiting their professional relationship as well.

But naturally, it would have been too good to be true for things to continue on so well. No, she had come into work the following day to learn Fornell had thought it would be a spectacular idea to send DiNozzo to prison until the end of the investigation. Worse than that though, she was pretty damn sure Jethro blamed her for it all or at the very least he was most certainly pissed off at her for something. So, as a peace offering, she had spent the better part of the morning trying to find the address of this mysterious forensic technician DiNozzo got fired back when he was with Baltimore P.D.

After calling in dozens of favors, she finally found someone who managed to track down the tech's new work placement. Hurrying down to interrogation, as to not prolong providing Jethro with what she hoped would smooth over this tiny bump in the road, Jenny smiled as she rounded the corner hearing Ziva tell Jethro an old phrase Director David used to say.

"Translate," she heard Jethro order Ziva annoyed.

Taking the liberty of the translation, Jenny used it as a means to announce her presence. "A little fire burns a great deal of corn."

Jethro glanced back and forth between her and Ziva looking extremely confused. Jenny smirked at how cute he looked with his brow furrowed, trying to determine what on Earth the phrase was supposed to mean. "What?"

"It never made sense to me either," Jenny said to make him feel better. Emily, of course, had understood the meaning somehow and had attempted to provide Jenny with this rather in-depth, or as in-depth as a six year old could be, explanation that only left Jenny more confused. As well, as feeling slightly stupid for not understanding something her six year old daughter seemed to find so simple.

"It loses something in translation," Ziva laughed, shaking her head at the two of them. Sensing that Jenny needed to be alone with Jethro, she started to head off, nodding her goodbyes to each.

Jethro started to walk off in the opposite direction, so Jenny fell right into step beside him. "I saw Lieutenant Kim leave. She have an alibi?" Jenny asked as a means of breaking the ice what was sure to be a conversation with a lot of yelling involved.

"No. She framed DiNozzo and I let her go." Oh yes, he was most definitely pissed off at her for something or other.

Deciding that with the tone he was already taking with her, she best simply offer up the address in hopes that it prevented an argument that would send them several steps backwards in their progression as friends. "So George Stewart is…" Jenny started to try and tell him she found the man's work address, only to have Jethro cut her off before he could get anywhere.

"He's next on my list," Jethro said shortly, obviously trying to get rid of her.

"You know there's no reason to be petulant, Jethro," Jenny laughed, purposely using a big word he wouldn't know.

"Hey, the word's pissed, Jen," he argued. Okay, so that nice friendly understanding they had in her office yesterday morning was completely out the window. Just what she needed! But of course, with Jethro being Jethro, he simply did not stop there. "You know what? You can drop the Director act. We're alone," he said, hitting her right where it hurt.

She knew he didn't intend for that to sound threatening, knew that he meant that as friends they should at least be able to act that way when alone and not still feel the need to be director and agent. But still, this had to be the hundredth time he'd attacked her job and dismissed her authority since she became Director. And, frankly, she had enough. She stopped short, forcing him to turn around and look into her fiery green eyes, sending bullets his way. "You think my job is an act?"

"No, not all of it," he corrected, originally intending on telling her he didn't mean it like that. But hell, they were already arguing, so in the end he figured he might as well go all the way. "Ass kissing on the Hill is a skill." What was he Dr. Seuss now?

"So is castration," Jenny threatened, though this time she was seriously considering acting on her words.

"I wear a cup." Oh, like that would stop her!

The two stared at each other, the intensity of not only anger but attraction in their eyes. So much so that she was seriously considering pushing him right up against that wall and taking him right there in the hallway. After all, they were alone as he so kindly pointed out. Before she could do anything stupid, she whipped out the piece of paper with Stewart's address and thrust it over to him.

"What is this?" he asked, taking the paper from her, the anger in his voice slowly dissipating.

"George Stewart's alias and work address. I managed to find it between kissing asses," she spat at him before storming off.

"It just proves you should have stayed a field agent," he hollered after her, but she could hear in his voice he felt like an ass.

Even after a few hours passed from her and Jethro's argument, Jenny still felt like crap and her concentration on work was virtually nonexistent. If this kept up, she would wind up apologizing to Jethro even though she didn't do anything wrong. It was times like these she hated that he could make her feel this way. Her phone ringing literally had her jumping out of her seat. "Shepard," she answered after a taking a moment to compose herself.

"Hi, Mommy!" a voice cried through the phone and with those two simple words all the stress of the day seemed to wash away.

"Hey, baby girl!" Jenny smiled, thrilled to hear her daughter's voice. She couldn't have called at a better time. "How was school?" Jenny asked after checking the clock to see Emily must have just arrived home.

"Great! I got a hundred on my math test, we made turkeys out of construction paper to put on the table at thanksgiving, _and_ we all got to make a Pilgrim or Indian hat to wear at lunch so we could recreate the First Thanksgiving!" Emily explained so fast that Jenny had to take a moment for her brain to play catch up.

Deciding it best to answer everything one step at a time, Jenny started with, "A hundred on a math test? My Emily? No way!" Of course, Jenny was only kidding. Emily excelled at math and she would be more surprised to hear the girl hadn't gotten a hundred than to hear that she had. Still, sometimes messing with her daughter was just too hard to resist.

"MOM! I'm good at math!" Emily objected, but Jenny could hear the laughter in the girl's voice.

"I know," laughed Jenny. "And congratulations. That's wonderful, sweetheart. When Mommy get's home tonight you'll have to show me so we can put it up on the fridge. I also have to see this turkey too. So tell me, did you make an Indian or a Pilgrim hat?"

"I was an Indian," Emily announced rather proud of herself.

"Oh, Ms. Swanson better have taken photos of this!"

"_Maybe_," Emily said drawing out the word, intending on not giving Jenny a solid answer.

"Emily Ziva Shepard, you have better not thrown those photos out before I could see them!" Jenny objected, knowing full well with the girl's hatred of having her picture taken that she would do just that.

'"Uh….Naomi's calling. Gotta go. Love you!"

"Emily!" Jenny cried, only to receive a hang up as her response. God, the similarities between that girl and Jethro were too much to handle sometimes!

And, as if reading her mind, her door flew open and the very man, whose genes provided her daughter's annoying qualities, walked into her office. She glanced up to see her assistant hurry in after him, apologizing, "I'm sorry, Director. He just…"

"It's fine, Cynthia. Don't worry about it," Jenny managed to insure Cynthia quickly before Jethro practically shut the door right in the girl's face. "Ever the gentleman, Jethro," she chastised. Cynthia was an ever loyal assistant for having put up with Gibbs' antics the past few months, but Jenny worried how much the girl would be able to handle.

Ignoring her, Jethro strode over to her desk and made himself comfortable in one of the chairs across from her desk and stared at her for a long while. Under his intense scrutiny, she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "What, Jethro?"

After a moment longer, he finally spoke. "The second 'b' stands for bastard."

She stared at him confused for a while, expecting him to continue on, but when he didn't she asked, "What?" Did he really expect her to understand that?

"The second 'b' in Gibbs st…you know what? Forget that. How's this, if it's any consolation for this morning, Stewart's breath was so bad it probably could have killed a person."

For a moment, she didn't follow where he was going with this, but after a moment of running it and rerunning it through her head it finally dawned on her. "You're apologizing!" she announced happily.

"No. I have a rule against that, Jen." Right, of course. How stupid of her to actually believe he might regret their argument this morning as much as she did.

"I know…rule number six," she groaned annoyed. "But isn't there an exception to that?" she asked knowing full well there was. The only thing she was uncertain of was whether he would qualify them as friends.

"Yea…apologies are okay between friends," he acknowledged. "So…I guess…I'm sorry, Jen." Her jaw literally dropped. She never actually expected him to _say_ it! Acknowledge the exception to the rule? Yes, but actually apologize? Not in the slightest! "Well, don't sit there gaping forever, Jen, if ya ever want to hear me say it when I screw up in the future," he told her, laughing at her outward shock.

Joining in his laughter, she nodded, knowing full well she would probably never hear him say sorry again regardless. But all that was okay because in his own cryptic way, he had just admitted that they were friends. Not sort of, kind of, taking steps towards becoming friends, but actual, honest to God, I-can-feel-safe-apologizing-to friends.

After sitting in a comfortable silence for a little while longer, Jenny finally decided she should probably get caught up in everything going on with DiNozzo's case. "So what happened with Stewart other than him poisoning you with his horrible breath? Is he our man?"

"Oh, he's our man, alright. In order for us to see his Jane Does, he says we'll need a warrant."

"The first sign of a guilty man," she agreed.

"Well, he claims to have been exonerated because he didn't mess up the blood test himself. He sent it out to the lab," Jethro explained to her, though she could tell he thought that made Stewart as guilty as if he screwed up the test himself.

"I can try and get the court case records unsealed for you," Jenny suggested.

"That would be great, Jen," he thanked, standing up and heading for the door.

"I'm sorry too, Jethro," she told him, just as he opened the door to leave. For what exactly, she didn't know. Probably for everything she'd ever done and more. Not that the meaning meant anything to either of them at the moment. Instead, they were content to know that, at least for now, everything was good between the two of them.

Of course getting the court records unsealed turned out not to be quite as easy as she made it out to be. It took her the rest of the afternoon to track down where in the Baltimore court system the records had wound up. And if that wasn't bad enough, it took them till late evening the next day to finally get the records sent to her office. Jethro was going to kill her. Well, maybe not seeing as he managed to arrest Stewart and get DiNozzo freed all without the records.

So now, here she was with a giant file they probably no longer needed taking up a large portion of her desk. Deciding it was hardly her case or her problem, so the file hardly needed to clutter up her desk, she thought she might as well bring it down to Jethro. He was expecting it, after all, and hell, maybe he might find something to use in the prosecution of Stewart.

She smiled on her way down the stairs at DiNozzo's welcome home party in the bullpen and smiled even wider when she noticed Jethro drop what he was doing to meet her at the bottom of the stairs. She could get used to this re-found friendship. "I got the court records from Stewart's case against Baltimore unsealed," she told him, handing him the file, smirking as he rolled his eyes.

"You're a little late, Jen," he told her as she knew he would. But she would hardly give him the satisfactory of knowing she expected it. So instead she shot him her 'director' glare until he corrected, "Uh…I mean, thank you, director."

"Better, Jethro," she laughed; hoping if they could keep this up, they might not argue so much. He barely flipped through a few pages of the records before dropping the file on his desk and running off in the direction of the stairs.

"Jethro?" she hollered confused, alerting the others to their Boss' take off. Instantly, they dropped everything to hurry off after him. Glancing at the file he just dropped, she saw that the assistant she assigned to help Abby in her lab was in fact the person who Tony had gotten fired at Pemberton Medical Analysis.

Realizing, as Jethro had, that Abby was in danger, she jogged off after the team as fast as she could in her stilettos. Thank God, Abby was capable of defending herself, even if Abby didn't always believe she could because by the time they all got down there Abby had Charles tied up with duck tape, coming out of the altercation completely unscathed herself. Regardless of that, Jenny felt entirely responsible for the whole situation. She assigned Charles to work for Abby, thinking if might possibly give her some help considering she did the work of ten plus people. If she had simply allowed Abby to work alone as she had previous to Jenny becoming Director, Charles never would have had the exclusive access he had to frame Tony, nor would Abby's life have ever been in danger.

Jethro would have her head for this. Hell, he'd probably have her fired if he could find a way to do so. His team was his family and she was an intruder who jeopardized their safety. So much for her hope of possibly fitting in with them one day. Still, she couldn't dwell in her sorrows just yet. This was her fault and she at least had to do what she could to make it right. "Abby, could I talk to you for a moment?" Jenny asked, while the others took care of properly booking Charles.

"Sure, Director," she agreed, hesitantly leading Jenny into another room of her lab.

"For this, Abby, you can call me Jenny," she said, trying to lighten the sober mood, before turning serious herself. "Abby, I am…"

"It's okay, Jenny," Abby tried to tell her, but Jenny certainly didn't feel that way.

"No, Abby, it's not. I assigned you an assistant you didn't ask for or want and ignored the fact that I knew you prefer to work alone. Frankly, you are the best damn forensic scientist in the country and probably the entire world. I should never have tried to mess with that. And if that wasn't bad enough, I almost got Tony convicted of a crime he didn't commit and almost got you killed," she stuttered out barely taking a breath. "I'm so sorry, Abby," she apologized. Gibbs may see it as a sign of weakness, but Jenny thought that it was necessary sometimes – especially now.

Abby drew quiet for a moment and Jenny feared she only made matters worse. Quietly whispering that she was sorry once more, Jenny turned to leave only to have Abby grip her shoulder and turn her around. Bracing herself for a punch in the face, Jenny hardly expected to be pulled into a bone crushing hug. "Abby?" Jenny questioned when Abby let go.

"You basically just called me the best forensic scientist ever!" Abby exclaimed, excitedly pulling her into another slightly less extreme hug.

"Well, it's true," laughed Jenny. "Oh and I almost forgot to tell you. I talked to the man who sent you this," she started to say, holding up a copy of the dress code letter some new guy in HR had sent Abby a while back. "I can assure you no one will be bothering you again on this issue. This job is hard for all of us and personally, I think your unique style is lovely and brings a refreshing aspect to this job that the agents need," Jenny added, tearing the letter up.

"Awe, thank you, Director…Jenny," Abby said pulling her back into another hug.

"Abbs I need to breath," Jenny squeaked out and Abby instantly jumped back.

"Right, sorry."

"Do you have plans tomorrow for Thanksgiving, Abby?" Jenny asked, hoping this whole mess with Tony getting arrested hadn't spoiled her plans. If it had, Jenny was sure Ducky would be happy to have her join him, his mother, Jenny and Emily. She was pretty sure Ziva would be joining them as well.

"I was able to schedule trip to Louisiana to visit my family. My plane leaves early tomorrow morning," Abby told her and Jenny could hear the girl's excitement to see her family ring happily through her voice.

"Fantastic, Abby. Have a great time," she wished the girl, giving her one last hug before leaving to go pack up her office. Only she barely made it to the stairwell, when a pair of strong arms wrapped around her waist.

"I take back what I said, Jen," his gruff voice whispered against her ear.

Spinning around in his arms, she looked up at him questionably. "About what, Jethro?"

"Your timing," he explained, retracting his earlier comment about her being a little too late. "Your timing saved Abby's life."

"Jethro, if it weren't for me…" she started, knowing she wouldn't have to save Abby's life if she hadn't been the one to put Abby in danger.

"Shh…" he hushed, putting a finger to her lips, silencing her. "Thank you, Jen," he whispered, kissing her forehead lightly, sending shivers down her back. It was then she became aware of their remarkably close proximity and to the fact that his arms were still encircled around her waist.

"Oh my God," Abby squeaked sending the two jumping apart. "You two are so cute!"

"Abby!" They both chastised, sending her scurrying away with a bright smile on her face. The two then turned back to look at one another and simply burst out laughing. Oh yes, for now, everything between them was just fine.

[][][][][][]

Of course, everything couldn't stay fine between then for long, now could it? Certainly not with the two of them. She and Emily had had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend with Ducky, Mrs. Mallard, and Ziva, only for Jenny to return to work and have one day of relative peace and quiet before all hell broke loose with yet another member of Jethro's team. She was seriously going to have to start insuring the 'kids' stopped making messes or she and Jethro would never have a chance.

With any other team, protection duty at The Navy League of the United States Dinner would have gone over smoothly, without a single hitch. But, in a fleeting moment of confidence, she thought it a good idea to assign the best team she had. The one thing she failed to factor in was her best team was also her most troublesome team, so naturally her plan backfired on her…big time.

McGee had run across a man arguing with an SUV in the back exit of the parking garage. After McGee identified himself as NCIS, the man had supposedly shot at McGee, and therefore McGee shot back, killing the man. Open and shut case, properly handled by a well trained NCIS agent, right? With any other team, all she would get on the incident was a report that she could easily sign off on and file away without a second thought. But, this was Jethro's team, so naturally after processing the scene, what happened to be missing? The gun the man supposedly used to fire at McGee and the actual bullet he fired! So now, instead of simply being able to sign off on a report, she had to oversee an investigation of whether McGee shot an unarmed, innocent man or not.

Outside her office, she heard Cynthia slyly say, "Go right in, Special Agent Gibbs." As if he would actually stop to ask the poor girl if it were okay to enter! And, as expected, before she heard Cynthia even finish her sentence, Jethro was striding across her office.

"Shut the door, Jethro," she ordered purposely just as he got to the desk, so he would have to walk all the way back to the door. If this case was to be anything like the one with Agent DiNozzo, Cynthia would already be hearing a fountain of colorful insults with the door closed. They did not need it open, so the rest of NCIS could follow along too.

"I'm flashing back to Paris in '99," she said, instantly voicing the time he covered up for her when she stepped in it. Once again knowing, if she did not use the time to her advantage first, he would nail her coffin with it.

However, with the small smile and distant look that found their way onto his face, she could tell that was not the memories he was flashing back to. Damn it! There was just too much history between them, especially in '99. "Not what you're thinking," she corrected. Though God, she wish it was!

"No? Then what?" he asked in a tone that told her he knew exactly what memory she wanted him to think about.

Despite his obvious desire to joke his way out of this, Jenny knew it was time to be serious, whether he liked it or not. "I remember you covering for another agent…" she started before faltering out the conclusion, "who messed up."

"What agent was that?" Oh she wanted to reach across the desk and strangle him! He knew how much this incident bothered her, both back then and now. Yet, he insisted on being a smart ass.

"You know damn well what agent!" she yelled, tired of his antics, but of course, he wasn't finished.

"Oh!" he cried, pretending to have a giant revelation. "You mean the time you shot that guy."

She was going to shoot _him_ if he kept this up! "Did McGee blow it?" she finally asked sternly, trying to get the point. She was not the agent who messed up this time, so she did not need a lecture from him.

"McGee's a probie. Probies make mistakes," he rationalized, before giving his true opinion. "Having said that, no, I don't think he did."

Of course, Jethro would have one hundred percent faith in his officer. She expected nothing less than that. Frankly, she wanted to believe McGee too. He was an honest, professional agent. One of the best she had. Still, the evidence was contradicting his statement of events, and as Director, she could not overlook that in the way Jethro could. "Where's the gun? The slug that was fired?" she asked, hoping Jethro might see her point.

"I don't know, but I will find out." Sometimes she wondered if he even knew what the phrase, the sooner the better meant. Hell, she wondered if he even knew what being Director meant! I mean did he really not realize she had about a hundred people breathing down her neck over this incident already and the man had only been shot last night!

Her morning had not gone over well. Being woken up by several people calling wanting to know exactly what happened when she had not even gotten to work to be briefed on whatever the hell they were talking about and then having to go into work so early she could not accompany Stanley when he dropped Emily off at school, was not what she would call a good start to the day! "The C.N.O.'s aide called me at seven a.m. this morning. Admiral Chapman wants to know what's going on. He asked me…" she stopped when she noticed his eyes glazing over and that small smile weaving its way back on his face. Of course, why would anything she had to say actually be important enough for him to listen too? "What are you thinking about?" she asked, curious about what he found so important.

"Paris," he answered simply.

"Get your mind out of the bedroom, Jethro!" she told him. They had work to do and if he kept thinking about Paris, she knew he would find a way to bring it up in every conversation until all she was thinking about was Paris too. And, damn, he'd only mentioned it once and the flashbacks were already starting. "Let's get some answers," she said dismissing him, but instead he stood there staring at her. Oh, it was going to be a long couple days!

The universe must really have it out for her this month because it hadn't been more of an hour since Jethro left her office that she was calling him up once more to meet with her and two people from Metro P.D. McGee had apparently not just shot what appeared to be an unarmed man, but an undercover Metro Detective, John Benedict. Yes, someone was definitely out to get her.

After making the introductions, Jenny did something that as Director she knew she probably shouldn't do: let Gibbs take control of the conversation. While Gibbs and Metro argued back and forth over what McGee did or may have done or didn't do, Jenny wondered why on Earth she ever once believed this would be better than fieldwork. Now that she was here, all she ever seemed to do was argue with someone over something and ninety percent of the time it had to do with Jethro. God, she missed Paris! Missed the thrill of the chase, missed working with Jethro, missed being able to love him, and especially missed when he looked at her likes she meant something special to him instead of the glare he seemed to be training on her now.

When Gibbs and the Metro Captain's banter grew loud enough to draw her out of her thoughts, she kindly turned to Agent McGee knowing he didn't need to hear this. He felt guilty enough and, having been in his shoes before, she knew this would hardly help alleviate any of it. "Special Agent McGee, why don't you return to the squad room? We'll call you if we need you."

And by the sincere apology he made to the Metro detectives, she knew she made the right call. But of course, the argument continued and this time she got dragged into it. This was what she gets for letting Jethro open his mouth. "With all due respect, Director Shepard, I think we all know what happened here. Nobody else saw another vehicle in the alley. A nervous rookie panicked. Fired prematurely. Killed a veteran cop."

"McGee's young, but he's a damn good agent," Jethro defended because God forbid he allow her to answer when someone was addressing _her_. She opened her mouth to agree with Jethro's point, but, of course, he wasn't done. He even went so far as to claim that the cop drank a lot, which naturally did not go over well with Metro.

"Gentleman," she interrupted, trying to regain control of this meeting, but the Metro detectives were already standing up to leave.

"I'm not gonna stand for a cover up," the Captain said, clearly unhappy at Jethro accusing his dead officer of being a drunk.

"And neither am I, Captain," Jenny assured him sternly, standing up herself. "I shared our preliminary report, and you'll have full access to our findings."

"I'm gonna conduct my own investigation," he told her. Oh this was not going to go over well with Jethro!

And what was really not going to go over well was that she had no authority to stop Metro from doing just that. "That is your prerogative."

"And I wanna interrogate, McGee." Oh no, this was really really bad. McGee did not do well under that kind of pressure and yet it was their dead officer, leaving her with little power to object.

"That's not gonna happen," Jethro objected. Well, apparently he thinks can overrule Metro.

"I'll handle this, Special Agent Gibbs," she ordered him, knowing that he would only make matters worse.

"McGee has made his statement," he said, completely ignoring her orders. "That's not going to change.

"Thank you for coming," Jenny told the Metro cops, sending Gibbs a look to tell him he was in major trouble for what he just pulled. "You'll have NCIS' full cooperation."

"Do I get to question Agent McGee?" The Captain asked. Damn! As pissed as she was at Gibbs, she had still been hoping Metro would take his word on not interrogating McGee as final because she still could not deny them that opportunity.

"Yes," she sighed, opening the door to show them out. "But not today," she added. She may not be able to say no, but she could at least dictate the terms. McGee was her agent, after all.

When they finally accepted her terms and left her office, she reluctantly shut her door again, knowing Jethro would probably kill her. "Before you jump down my throat, you think about what you would do if that cop shot McGee and McGee didn't have a weapon," she yelled, hoping to beat him to it. After all, the way Metro handled the situation would look angelic compared to what Jethro would do if the roles were reversed.

Instead of answering her or even yelling at her, he simply opened the door and left, leaving her wishing he'd just screamed at her so she do the same and get everything out of her system. How dare he act as if her authority and her word didn't matter!

Sighing, she attempted to get back to work, but found her attention slipping thanks to her pent up anger with Jethro and her guilt for getting in yet another argument with him. So giving up on work for the time being, she dialed her favorite number and smiled at the voice who picked up. "Hello."

"Hey, baby girl. It's Mommy."

"Mommy!" the girl cried excitedly. "What's the matter?" she asked, picking up on her mother's stressed out tone.

"It's nothing, Emily. Just a tiring day at work," Jenny said not wanting to bother the girl with her problems.

"Agent Gibbs?" Emily asked, astute as ever.

"Just a complicated case," she said simply, knowing, as much as Gibbs pissed her off today, his anger was slightly warranted. Not that she would ever tell him that. No, she was pretty sure the more likely outcome would be her castrating him for countermanding her authority in front of Metro. "So I was thinking…I have to work a little late tonight, so what do you say we go out to eat tonight?" Normally if she had to work late, Jenny would just have Naomi feed Emily and Jenny would find herself something later on, but after the day she was having, dinner with her daughter was exactly what she needed.

"Just you and me?" Emily asked, her voice extremely hopeful. They had been spending a lot of time dining with either Ziva or Ducky these days and while they both greatly enjoyed their company, their mother-daughter time had seriously been lacking.

"Absolutely," Jenny said, smiling as she could hear her daughter jumping up and down excitedly. "I'll take that as a yes."

"You bet!" Emily agreed.

"Okay so I'll call Stanley when I'm packing up, so he can pick you up to meet me at work. Sound good to you?" With her daughter all but screaming in excitement, Jenny told her she would see her later on and finally was able to get some work done.

Feeling better about the day and looking forward to some time alone with her daughter, Jenny quickly packed up and headed for the elevator. Her smile dropped instantly, however, when the elevator doors opened after she'd only gone down one floor and somehow she just knew _he_ would be getting on.

Sure enough, Jethro walked in looking rather surprised to see her. With her annoyance rising at his mere presence, she shuffled further away from him. "You still here?" he asked. What the hell kind of question was that when she was standing right there!

"No, I'm the Director's doppelganger," she spat at him, making sure to use a word he wouldn't know. He always hated when she did that.

"I never did know what that meant."

'_Yea, no kidding, Agent my-six-year-old-daughter-has-a-large-vocabulary-than-me Gibbs!' _Before she could retaliate with anything, a young junior agent hopped into the elevator before the doors could shut. Damn! She had been looking forward to some time with Jethro. The poor agent took one look at Jenny and Jethro and looked like she wanted to jump right back out of the elevator rather than be trapped alone with them.

Jenny watched the junior agent shift her weight uncomfortably, as if that would make the doors open faster. Turning to glance at Jethro, she saw him look the girl up and down before smiling at the agent. Oh, he was NOT checking out a woman half his age in front of her!

When the doors finally opened, she could literally hear the young agents sigh of relief. "Good night," she heard Jethro tell the girl.

"Good night," she responded in kind, hurrying out as fast as she could.

Jethro glanced out of the elevator to make sure the girl was out of earshot before turning back to Jenny. "So a doppelganger is someone who's pissed."

She had to admit it was a decent guess, even though he was completely off. But figuring it best to just get her reprimanding him over with instead of focusing on a vocabulary lesson, she said, "Yes, Agent Gibbs. This one definitely is."

"Why?" he asked and it actually sounded like he didn't know. Of course, he didn't know or care. She was the only one who ever seemed to care about politics and respecting others, especially one's boss.

"Why? Because you countermanded me in front of Metro Police."

"I didn't countermand you," he objected. "I overruled you." Oh because that was so much better. She was the Director of NCIS and Jethro had all but made it obvious to Metro that he could push her around and had little to know respect for her authority. Hell, he acted as if her word on the subject didn't even matter.

Either way, it was the same thing and she was equally as pissed because of it. "Semantics," she threw at him before walking out of the elevator.

"Is that like doppelganger?" he asked confused.

"Get a dictionary!" she hollered back to him. She already had one child to teach English grammar and vocabulary too; she did not need to add him to the list.

Not daring to look back at Jethro, she walked over to where Stanley was holding the car door open for her. "Good evening, Stanley," she greeted.

"Evening, Director," he responded, taking her briefcase from her. "I think you'll find a rather lovely surprise waiting for you," he added, winking at her. Her anger at Jethro washed away instantly, as a smile spread across her face. In her argument with Jethro, she almost forgot Emily was meeting her for dinner.

Excitedly sliding into the car, she was greeted by a pair of small arms wrapping around her neck. "Mommy!"

"Well, hey there, angel," Jenny laughed, trying to push further into the car so Stanley could shut the door, all with a six year old attached to her. "Emily Shepard, you didn't have to get all dressed up for me," Jenny said, admiring the fancy skirt and top she knew Naomi probably picked out for her. One thing Emily was not good at: matching her clothes. Thank God for school uniforms!

"We weren't sure where you and I were going, so Naomi thought it couldn't hurt," Emily pointed out, kindly giving Naomi the credit she deserved.

"Hmm…well, since we both are dressed rather nicely this evening, perhaps we should try and see if we can get into Palena's. That sound okay to you?"

"Awesome!"

"Alright then. Stanley would you mind?" she asked, not wanting to put her driver out too much.

"Not at all, ma'am. I'd be happy too," he told her, as if he would actually say anything else.

After ordering their food, Jenny started to ask how Emily's day at school went, hoping it went a whole lot better than her own day. "So how was…"

"What did Agent Gibbs do today?" Emily interrupted curiously.

"I thought I told you it wasn't Agent Gibbs this time?" Jenny said laughing at the girl's astuteness.

"Mommy, it's always about Agent Gibbs."

"Right," Jenny conceded, trying to figure out the best way to explain this to a six year old. "Short version, Agent Gibbs acted as if he were the boss and not me in front of some very important people."

Emily went quiet for a moment, thinking hard, and Jenny found it to be just about the cutest thing. "You used to work with him?" she asked after a while.

"Yes…" Jenny said, wondering where on Earth her daughter was going with this.

"Does he ever bring it up?"

"All the time. Why are…" she started to ask, but didn't get very far.

Emily just shrugged, taking a sip of her drink. "Maybe you should too," she suggested as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Maybe I should…" Jenny said absentmindedly, wondering if perhaps the young girl had a point.

So the next day, when Gibbs flung her door open and started screaming at her about her allowing Metro to interview McGee, she decided to test out that theory. "When were you gonna tell me?" he asked furiously.

"I see we're picking up where we left off yesterday," she stalled, waiting for the appropriate moment.

"If you're sending McGee to Metro, you're damn right we are," he screamed. Must he always make a scene? She did not have the authority to tell them they couldn't investigate a suspect in the death of one of their officers. Not even if that suspect was an NCIS special agent.

"Didn't know I had to ask your permission," she told him, making it clear who was the boss in this situation. Not that it would actually make a difference to Jethro whatsoever.

Her only response this time was the infamous 'Gibbs stare.' "Don't give me the stare. I'm not a junior agent." Did he really expect that to work? She wasn't a probie anymore. Not to mention, it never worked on her even when she was a probie. Sleeping with him probably saw to that.

"No, you're just a junior director," he said, hitting well below the belt. He knew attacking her job was a sure way to piss her off.

"That's enough, Special Agent Gibbs," she ordered, warning him.

Their argument got interrupted by Cynthia, who wanted to remind her of her meeting in MTAC starting in a moment. That only managed to hold Gibbs of long enough for her to tell Cynthia she was on her way. As soon as she hung up the phone, he started right back up again. "You have to learn how to say no," he said pointing a finger accusingly at her.

She had enough with him! It was now or never. If he thought he could strike that low, she would show him she could strike even lower. "I did Jethro," she told him, heading for the door. "Or have you forgotten." And by the taken aback look on her face, she knew she struck a nerve. Perhaps she had taken the whole bringing the past thing up too far by mentioning the 'Dear John' letter she sent him saying no to his offer for her to return to the states with her, but after everything he put her through today, it sure as hell felt worth it.

Only after Metro called to inform her that McGee had confessed that the undercover cop he shot may not have had a gun and that they were charging him, she started to regret striking as low as she did. Because Jethro was sure to really let her have it the second he caught wind of this. Deciding she might need another peace offering in order to save her own life (she knew she was long past salvaging their friendship), she convinced Metro police to release McGee into NCIS custody, knowing it wouldn't go very far with Jethro but it would at least mean something to him.

As if on cue, her door flung open, slamming hard against the wall. "Close the door, please," she asked him nicely, knowing the rest of NCIS would not need to hear this conversation. Not that the door would likely contain their voices.

"No, you don't want that door closed, Director," he told her, confirming her theory he was about to go so low that the phrase below the belt wouldn't even begin to cover it.

"I don't?" she questioned, trying to maintain appearances.

"No," he affirmed, but she simply ignored his warning and closed the door herself.

"Let her rip," she told him, ready to face whatever the hell he would throw at her. She was pretty damn sure she hit him harder this morning than he could even begin to hit her now.

"The U.S. Attorney's office is charging McGee with negligent homicide. Metro's booking him right now. Do you know why?" he asked her. As if she didn't already know that! After all, it was her early warning that provided her the amount of preparation time she needed to prepare for whatever Jethro would throw at her.

"Because he admitted to making a tragic mistake," she said, trying to let her tone of voice tell him she was as upset as he was. McGee was important to her too. In her short time her, she was beginning to grow attached to Jethro's team and McGee was a great guy and a valuable agent. Losing him would be nothing short of tragic.

"No," objected, completely ignoring the sorrow in her voice. Not that she expected anything less from him. "Because you may know how to kiss ass, but you sure don't know how to protect it," he spat at her.

Oh she so desperately wanted to retaliate on that one, but she needed to keep the upper hand this time, so she tried to remain calm. "And you think you're protecting that boy by ignoring the facts?" she asked, trying to make him see McGee made a mistake and was taking responsibility for it. Protecting McGee from the fact that he killed an innocent man, no matter how accidental it was, was not going to help him.

"He's not a boy. He's an NCIS special agent." Could he come up with an argument she didn't already know? "He's one of my people. I don't leave my people behind. It's a Marine thing," he added. Okay, now see that was better.

"What are you going to do?" she asked curiously. Damn! She was falling prey to his trap again.

"I'm gonna go to Metro and pick him up," he told her, stepping closer in an attempt to intimidate her. Considering McGee was on his way to NCIS, she wouldn't put that in the category of his better plans.

Standing her ground and not acting the slightest bit intimidated, she sternly told him, "No."

"No?" he asked exasperated. She almost wanted to smile at how blown away he was at her standing up to him.

"You're eyesight is weak, not your hearing," she said simply. It was about damn time he learned the meaning of the word no. And it was also long overdue that she start acting like his Director and stand her ground against him.

However, she wasn't prepared for him gripping her shoulders hard and moving her out of the way of the door, which only pissed her off more. He would never dare lay his hands on any other Director. While she stood there stunned for a moment, he flung the door open and started storming out. "You're not going to Metro because McGee is on his way here," she finally told him causing Jethro to freeze in place. "I convinced Captain Karzin that he wasn't a flight risk and to release him into out custody until his arraignment hearing," she added slamming the door. Once the door was shut, she leaned back against it, sighing. Last week they took one step forward, only to take two steps back this week.

**December 2005**

"Mommy come on out!" Jenny heard her daughter cry from the other side her bedroom door. Ignoring her for a moment, Jenny continued to assess her appearance in the mirror, starting to question if she did the right thing. Yes, she had intended to cut her hair a bit shorter. It didn't exactly look professional tied up in a ponytail. But she made the mistake of going to her hair appointment after a rather heated argument with Jethro. They had been having several a day since the incident with McGee.

Remembering how much Jethro loved her long red hair during their partnership, she told the hairdresser to just get rid of it all in an effort to piss him off beyond belief. She knew she shouldn't have gone this far, knew it was childish, knew he probably wouldn't even care, but here she was with her hair completely chopped off. A pixie cut her hairdresser had called it.

"Daddy you are never going to believe what Mom did to her hair. I'm telling you Daddy you aren't even going to recognize her," she heard from the other side of the door.

"Ziva tell me she does not have that video camera with her!" Jenny hollered, suddenly regretting ever starting this whole capture the important moments so Jethro wouldn't miss out on anything.

"Shh," she heard a tiny voice say.

"Uh…no, Jenny. As far as I am aware, she does not have a camera." Oh just what she needed, those two ganging up on her the day before she had to show the haircut off at NCIS.

"Come on, Mom. It's just Ziva and me…and Dad," Emily said, trying to coax her out. While Emily had already seen her hair cut, Ziva had not. "She looks great, Daddy. Doesn't think she does, but that's nothing new," she said turning her attention back to the video she was filming for her father. Yep, these two were definitely going to be the death of her.

"Jenny, you cannot stay in there forever," Ziva attempted. "I am sure that it looks lovely."

Sighing, Jenny knew the two would soon be breaking down the door if she didn't come out soon. "Alright, I'm coming." Taking a deep breath, she hesitantly creaked the door open, nervous for what her long time friend's opinion would be. Stepping out, she did a little spin around, showing her haircut of in all directions. "So…what do you think?"

Ziva considered the new look from all possible angles before a smile broke out on her face. "It looks good, Jen. Very profession, which is what you were looking for."

Jenny started to respond to Ziva but a young voice piped up, drawing her attention away. "See Daddy, I told you that you wouldn't even recognize her! She looks great though, doesn't she?" Emily told the camera excitedly. Jenny and Ziva burst out laughing, both silently agreeing on how adorable Emily could be. "You think it would look good on me?" she asked and Jenny couldn't tell if the question was directed to her and Ziva or the camera, but either way Jenny was certainly going to voice her opinion.

"Oh no," she laughed, picking the girl up and spinning her around. "You are beautiful just the way you are!" Just because Jenny needed to look more professional, did not mean she wanted Emily to cut her hair as well.

"Mom stop! You're making Daddy dizzy!" Emily shrieked, laughing as Jenny returned her to the ground.

"I love your long red hair! You don't need to cut it," Jenny told her, finger combing her daughter's hair. Taking the camera from her and handing it to Ziva, Jenny decided to drive her point home. Wrapping her arms around her daughter, she glanced up at the camera. "What do you think, Jethro? She's perfect just the way she is, right?" she asked, kissing the top of her daughter's head.

"I think he would most certainly agree with that," Ziva answered for the camera. "And I think that he would also agree that your new hair style is lovely." Jenny smiled her appreciation at Ziva's attempt to make her feel better, when both of them knew Jethro would have a heart attack when he saw.

"Wait till Agent Gibbs sees it," Emily exclaimed excitedly, as if reading their minds.

"Oh it most certainly will be interesting," Ziva agreed, sharing a sly look with Emily that made Jenny nervous. It never bode well for her when those two took the same side.

"I swear to God if you two start doing impersonations again…" Jenny warned, but the two simply laughed in response. Rolling her eyes at the two practically in hysterics, Jenny had to smile herself. While she hated to admit it, they were right about one thing. It would certainly be interesting to see Jethro's reaction at work tomorrow.

[][][][][][]

Leroy Jethro Gibbs was a dead man! She was most definitely, one hundred percent, seriously going to kill him this time! Having known him for close to a decade, Jenny was quite accustom to his antics and personally found herself to be rather tolerant of them compared to other people. Not this time, though. She had it up the wazoo with him these days and now he pulled this! This – not showing up to receive the medal she was awarding him – this was the last straw. It was embarrassing, disrespectful, a complete asshole move…and she could most certainly go on!

"Helloooooooooo," his obnoxious voice answered through the phone.

Flinging open her office door, she plowed on in, asking "Gibbs! Where are you?"

"I'm right behind you," she heard both through the phone and in the doorway of her office. God, was he always this annoying? And why the hell did he always have to do that appearing out of nowhere thing?

"I really hate it when you do that," she informed him, still on the phone, before sighing and hanging up. Annoyed she whipped around to find him standing there, holding his coffee cup, with what these days seemed to be an ever-present smirk on his face. He was greatly enjoying seeing her all riled up like this and much to her displeasure that just seemed rile her up even more. "Tony has your award," she told him, knowing he would hardly give a damn. He never showed up at an award ceremony for as long as she'd known him, but she had expected him to at least consider showing up when she was presenting it to him.

"He can keep it," he said, as she knew he would. The man simply did not change.

Then it dawned on her that he hadn't noticed her rather dramatic change. Nearly all her hair was gone and he didn't comment on that yet. Damn him! He was supposed to be furious she got rid of the one thing he used to cherish most about her. He was supposed to order her to grow it back out again. "Some things never change, do they, Jethro?" she commented, twirling the ends of her short pixie haircut.

"Depends on your definition of change," he shrugged, as if he hadn't even noticed her rather obvious motion to try and get him to notice her short hair.

"My definition?" she asked, appalled he didn't even give a damn enough to at least say _'oh, you cut your hair'_ or something. Deciding to simply forget it and go in for the reprimand he deserved, she ordered, "I expect you to be there the next time I'm handing you an award."

He scoffed, chuckling to himself a bit. "DiNozzo didn't tell you?" he asked, as she stormed around to sit at her desk. "I'm working a case."

_ 'Working a case my ass!'_ His team wouldn't have been in attendance if they had a case and dispatch would have sent her an email updating her on the latest cases to come in. "Alone in my office?" she joked. If that were true, he was failing miserably, seeing as he missed the most obvious evidence that a foot of her hair was missing!

"It's high profile, Jen. I thought you'd wanna hear about it before it hits the news." Okay…so that would be true, if he were actually working a case.

"I'm listening," she told him, indicating he should fill her in on this so called case of his.

"Well…" he drew out for a while, as he took his notepad out of his pocket and flipped through a few pages. Maybe he really did have a case? He shifted the notepad from close to far, and she tried hard not to laugh at his horrible eyesight. She could hardly feel bad for him. It was his own damn fault. He owned glasses, but refused to wear them. Finally settling on holding it far away, he informed her, "There's a dead celebrity at Quantico."

"Who?" she asked, surprised he actually had a case.

"Some woman named Taylor Shane," he told her in a tone that said he didn't have a clue who the woman was. Not surprising. She was pretty sure he owned one television, decades old, and probably couldn't figure out how to turn it on. She could picture him slamming down on all the buttons on the remote and then eventually punching the sides of the TV itself, thinking he might be able to scare it on.

Taylor Shane? The name sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn't remember where she'd heard of the woman. Flipping through channels maybe? But why would a dead celebrity fall under NCIS territory? It had to have something to do with the Navy. Racking her brain further, it dawned on her that a training camp was hosting some reality show on a few supermodels training to be in the military. "The supermodel?" she asked still unsure. But the more she thought about it, the more she knew that had to be it.

"Found her hanging from an OCS security fence this morning," he continued on and she took that as a yes. Jenny shivered slightly, as she thought of how horribly painful it must have been to die on that barbed wire.

Shaking off the image, she questioned, "Then why aren't you there?" It wasn't like him not to go to the crime scene. He always needed to be present to make sure everything was handled his way.

"I just got the call five minutes ago," he told her, as if she should know that.

"Oh…" she drew out checking her watch for show. "And the award ceremony started thirty minutes ago." Okay now she really was going to kill him. Originally, she considered letting him off the hook since he really did have a case, but apparently that case hadn't been assigned to him during the award ceremony. Once again, Leroy Jethro Gibbs was a dead man walking!

Ignoring the daggers her eyes were baring into him, he simply smirked. "Well, you know me. I like to get a head start on things," he joked, heading for the door. "I'll keep you informed."

Oh she was not letting him off the hook that easily. This was high profile case and she just knew he was going to screw up with the politics on this one. "Jethro, the press is going to be all over this one," she hollered, stopping him in the doorway. "I'd appreciate it, if you could go easy on them," she asked diplomatically, knowing he would never actually do as she asked. He had a _special_ way with the media that usually resulted in someone being physically injured.

"Telling me how to do my job, Director?" he asked annoyed. Must he always turn everything into an argument?

"No," she hollered, as he started to walk away again. "Just reiterating your previous point," she said, getting him to turn around once more.

"Which was?"

"I know you," she said simply. Her only response was him rolling his eyes and shutting the door on his way out. She stared at the door angrily for a while, running her hand through her hair. God she could not believe he didn't notice her damn haircut!

And if not noticing the haircut she got specifically for him _to_ notice wasn't bad enough, he did in fact, as predicted, managed to piss off the media. Thankfully he hadn't given the reporter a broken nose this time, but he did give them enough material to effect NCIS as an agency in a negative way. SecNav spent an hour on video conference with her in MTAC today going over last night's news report filled with bad publicity for NCIS thanks to one Special Agent Jethro Gibbs. And having the Secretary of the Navy jumping down her throat over Gibbs latest stunt was not exactly what she considered a great way to start her morning.

To add to her already fabulous morning, she now had Gibbs in her office to watch the news report on his latest mishap and instead of paying attention, he was wandering around her office like it was no big deal. "I'll just fast-forward to the good part," she told him, annoyed with his actions. She clicked the button on the remote, speeding through until Gibbs appeared on the screen.

"_Special Agent Gibbs, is the Marine Corps attempting to cover up how Taylor Shane died?" a reporter asked him. _Jenny was actually impressed that someone actually managed to get a question out without the result of him physically harming them in some fashion.

"_Interviews over," he told the woman, ignoring her question. _Diplomatic answer, not committing to any answer, whether it be a yes or a no, just like Jenny had taught him back during their partnership. Though, today was the first times she'd actually seen him attempt to follow her advice.

"_But people have a right to know," the reporter objected, not taking Gibbs words as a dismissal._

"_I don't care," he told her._ And that was the point in the interview where Jenny stopped being impressed with him and became pissed at him. Did he even realize how bad that simple phrase made all of NCIS look?

She slammed the pause button and turned to face him, annoyed that he was staring out the window instead of paying the slightest bit attention to the reason he'd been called up here. "What were you thinking?" she asked, and cursed herself for sounding more amused than mad. Back in her probie days she always found his way of handling the media rather funny and, if truth be told, she still did. But she was Director now and had to worry about the consequences of his actions.

"Give me a break, Jen," he whined, picking up on her amused tone of voice. Damn him! "I wasn't even asked that question," he told her.

"You're saying they did a hatchet job on you?"

"Yeah. Are you saying you don't believe me?" It wasn't that she didn't believe him. It was more the fact that she could actually see him saying that he didn't care if the people had a right to know. Picking up on her skeptical expression, he said accusingly, "You were wrong the other day. Some things do change."

Oh my God! She questioned one tiny thing and suddenly it was like she didn't believe a damn thing he said anymore. What a load of bull! She trusted him above anyone else. Besides it wasn't like she believed everything he said back when they were partners either. As much as she wanted to call him out on that jibe, she could literally hear SecNav in the back of her mind telling her she needed to get a handle on this situation and insure it did not happen again. "Part of our job is to make sure that they don't creatively edit our interviews, Jethro," she reminded him.

"No, that's maybe your job, Director. My job is to catch dirtbags," he told her.

"The Marine Corps does not need any more bad publicity at the moment." God help her for thinking that he, a former Marine, might actually give a damn about the Corps image!

"Supporting something called _Boot Camp Babes?_" he pointed out. "What did they think was gonna happen?" He had a rather good point with that one, she had to admit. Frankly she had the same opinion, when she first heard about the idea, but it turned out the people behind it had some pretty decent reasons for supporting and producing the show.

"The intention of the show was to represent that the Marines could be a life-changing experience," she told him, reiterating what had been told to her. She had never actually watched the show, since everything she seemed to watch these days had to be appropriate for a six year old, so she couldn't exactly tell him if the show actually followed through on its intention.

"Maybe in season two," he joked. "Are we done here? I have a dead girl downstairs and an investigation to run." Oh no! They were most certainly NOT done here. He hadn't even paid attention to the fact that his little news clip was negatively affecting NCIS. If he wasn't so damn good at his job, she would fire him for all the crap he'd pulled since her become Director. And she'd only been Director for a few months!

"I have an entire agency to run and sound bites like these do not help, when the budgets under review, or maybe you'd like to go back to the days when we had to buy our own ammo to train on the range?" she spat at him, trying to get him to see all the crap she had to deal with because he couldn't keep his damn mouth from saying something stupid and inappropriate to the media.

"Okay, you want me to help fix this?" He screamed. Damn right she wanted him to help fix this! "Then get me that reporter's number," he shouted, flinging her office door open angrily.

Jenny stood there stunned for a moment. With her frozen in place, Gibbs started to take the opportunity to leave, but she managed to stop him. "You're going to apologize?" she asked, shocked and thrilled at the same time.

"No," he told her. "Ask her to dinner." Oh she could not believe him! He did not just tell her to get her the reporter's number so he could take her to dinner. A: that would so not fix the problem and B: how dare his plans to go on a date with another woman in front of her! She would most definitely castrate him if he went through with it!

So instead of hunting down that number, she called in about a hundred favors till she managed to convince the network to issue a statement retracting Gibbs' little news interview and offer an apology for the hatchet job they did on him. However, knowing that statement would find itself on the news later that evening never had a chance to brighten up her day because Gibbs came barging into her office only moments after she hung up the phone. "Thought you might want a case update," he explained.

Now, she knew something was up. He never willingly updated her on cases, claiming she should have stayed a field agent if she wanted to know what was going on. "That was sweet…" she said hesitantly. He motioned for her to sit at the conference room table and she did as she was told.

"We found Taylor's ex-boyfriend in a motel room. He overdosed on Heroin," he informed her.

"Not surprising. He and Taylor had both been in rehab before…"

"We found this in his hand," he told her, handing her a piece of paper.

Curious that he was not only telling her about the case, but also showing her evidence, she gratefully took the letter from him. However, her heart started to sink slowly with each word, as she read the letter to herself.

_Dear Noah,_

_ I hope you're doing okay and in good health. I'm doing really well. This Boot Camp Babes_ _show has been fun, even though it's been really hard work. I'm feel healthy and good. Only a few days left now and it'll be over. This is really hard for me to tell you, but I have to. It's time for us to realize that this just isn't meant to be. Please know that it was never my intention to hurt you. I will always remember the good times we've had. Please take care of yourself and be happy._

_ Taylor_

"It's time for us to realize that this just isn't meant to be. Please know that it was never my intention to hurt you. I will always remember the good times we've had," she reiterated out loud. Now, Jenny realized exactly why Jethro was acting so strange. He was hardly being nice. This was his way of hurting her, his way of getting revenge, his way of reminding her of the hardest thing she ever had to do, his way of reminding her of her deepest regret, and lastly his way of insuring she never forgot how badly she broke both their hearts. "This is a 'Dear John' letter," she finally voiced, trying to keep her voice steady so he wouldn't know how much this was hurting her.

"Postmarked six days ago from Quantico post office. Handwriting checks out," he informed her, handing her an envelope that also had Taylor's handwriting on it.

Comparing the two, she agreed with him. "Taylor Shane sent it."

"Yeah. Noah Keller came by to chat about it."

_'Something you certainly never did,'_ Jenny thought bitterly. He could have come after her, should have come after her, if she meant anything at all to him. But instead, she had to learn from Ducky that Jethro had gone back to D.C. and married Stephanie only a few months after she left. Yea the father of her child certainly had loved her. Ignoring those thoughts, she decided not to give him the satisfaction. So she compared it to another couple other than herself and Jethro. "Very Romeo and Juliet."

"Except for the part where he feeds her a toxic Klowny Kake and offs himself." Technically true…but Romeo and Juliet did both die so she was sticking with her analogy.

After a while, she finally said, "This must've been a very difficult letter for her to write," indicating to him how hard it had been for herself.

"Probably harder for him to read. No one likes getting dumped by postal express," he admitted, picking up on where she was heading with this. Yes, she probably could have picked a better way to leave him than writing him a letter and leaving before he woke up, but she wouldn't have all the blame put on her.

Keeping up with the we're-talking-about-us-but-pretending-not-to-be-talking-about-us motion of this conversation, she explained, "Maybe he didn't listen. Relationships change. Some people don't know when to let go." Under his intense scrutiny, she flustered up a bit and decided not to add 'and some people don't know how to be honest enough to hold on to what they have.'

Instead, she pushed the personal aspect of this conversation away so and resorted back to the professional aspects of this case. "I have to brief the C.G. of Quantico first thing in the morning on this, and I'd like you to be there when I do that."

"Negative, Jen," he told her. "All we have is circumstantial evidence so far. We don't even have anything to tie the two deaths together yet," he told her heading for the door.

"Well, I can't call the General and tell him we have nothing."

"You can always write him a letter," he hollered as he shut the door, leaving her feeling like he might as well have stabbed her in the heart.

Knowing after that conversation she would never get any work done, Jenny decided to pack up and head on home to spend time with the one person she knew could cheer her up. Only when she got home and opened the front door she wasn't bombarded with her daughter slamming into her to give her a welcome home hug. Considering she called Naomi to tell her that she was on her way home, Jenny expected the girl to be at her usual perch at the bottom of the stairs waiting to pounce. Finding the lack there of rather odd, Jenny wandered into the kitchen where she found Naomi putting some containers of pre-prepared food away. God that woman was a life saver! "Hola, Naomi," Jenny said, announcing she arrived home.

Jumping up in surprise, Naomi quickly turned around. "Oh my, Senora, I did not hear you arrive."

"Sorry for startling you," Jenny apologized. "It seems my typical greeter is slacking off today."

"Miss Emily has been upstairs all day, Senora. She would not come down even for dinner," Naomi told Jenny apologetically. She hardly had anything to be sorry for. Emily could get remarkably stubborn at times and it was only about seven so there would still be plenty of time for the girl to eat.

"Not to worry, Naomi. I'll handle it," Jenny assured her. "You're free to go."

"Gracias, Senora," Naomi nodded before packing up her stuff and heading out.

After seeing Naomi out, Jenny decided to head upstairs to see what was going on with Emily. When she got to Emily's room, she reached to open the door only to find the door locked. Damn she meant to have that removed. Knocking on the door, she called "Emily? It's Mommy. Can I come in?"

"Um…Just a second," the girl hollered through the door nervously. Now, Jenny was worried. What on Earth was Emily doing all afternoon that she wouldn't come out or even unlock the door? Fearing all the worst possible options, Jenny knocked again, but didn't receive an answer. A horrible idea struck her and she called through the door, "Emily Ziva Shepard, you had better not be cutting your hair in there!"

Just as she finished yelling through the door, the door swung open revealing her daughter, still sporting her long red hair. "Relax, Mommy. I didn't cut my hair."

"So what have you been doing? You had Naomi rather nervous!" Jenny asked curiously. She really hoped nothing had upset the girl.

Smirking, Emily simply took Jenny's hand and led her over to sit on her bed. "Sit here," she ordered.

"Yes, ma'am," Jenny saluted, doing as she was told. She watched amused, as Emily nodded and walked over to the desk grabbing something off it. Keeping it hidden behind her back, she came back over to Jenny. "What you got there?" Jenny asked.

Emily pulled out a small vase filled with some homemade flowers made from construction paper. "This is for you, Mommy. Ziva was supposed to take me to get real ones but she had to go back to work after dropping me at home."

Jenny took the small vase, observing each and every flower. "These are so much better," she said. She always loved homemade gifts, especially ones from Emily, but she was still curious what brought this on. She hadn't flooded the bathroom again, had she? "What are they for?"

"'Cause you had a bad day at work."

Jenny started to tear up, but tired to hold it in so her daughter wouldn't mistake her happy tears as sad ones. "You worked all afternoon to make me these because I had a bad day at work?" Emily nodded, unsure of why her mother was crying. Enveloping Emily in a hug, Jenny told her happily, "You are the best daughter ever! I love them. They are going right on my bedroom nightstand."

"I love you, Mommy," Emily said and Jenny felt all the aggravation of the past few days disappear. And she knew that, as long as she had Emily, no matter what her job, or Jethro, threw at her in the end she would be alright.


	7. Girls vs Boys

Chapter Seven: Girls Vs. Boys

Saying goodbye to Mike turned out to be the hardest part of leaving her sanctuary. He raised her for nearly half her life and, while it certainly had been an _interesting_ parenting approach, it still meant a great deal to her. But she had to move on, for both their sakes. Mike needed to start enjoying his retirement again and she, herself, needed to return to the States so she could eventually go to college and join NCIS.

Still, she worried about him and how he would manage on his own. Especially since that bullet sliced his index finger clean off. While she knew he would kill her if she ever mentioned it, she still worried. He promised to come visit often and a part of her could sense that this goodbye was hard on him too, even if he didn't outwardly show it. Since Leyla and Amira moved away, they were all each other had for so long.

But this was a good thing or at least that's what Mike told her when her father finally managed to coax her away from her hideout far down the beach. So with Mike's promise to visit frequently, she took strength from her father's presence and with a deep breath, boarded the plane and started the new chapter of her life. The first chapter she would have with her father. Only that chapter would have to be held off for a few days because as soon as she stepped off the plane two pairs of arms surrounded her in a giant hug.

"Oh my God! If you ever walk off like that again, I'm going to sick Ziva on you!" Abby shrieked in her ear.

"Not if I go after her on my own first next time," Ziva objected, showing she was just as upset as Abby.

"Alright ladies, why don't you give the poor girl some air or there won't be a next time," Gibbs chuckled."

"Fine," Ziva conceded, pulling back first, but Abby still held on for a moment longer.

"But she's still coming home with us," Abby ordered, finally pulling back herself.

"I heard you loud and clear, Abs," Gibbs agreed, holding his hands up in defeat.

"Sooo do we get hugs too?" Tony asked, and Emily glanced over to see him Ducky and McGee sitting in a row of seats. Running over to the two of them, she wrapped her arms around Tony first, gave Ducky a quick kiss on the cheek and then fell into a slightly awkward hug with McGee. Emily smiled, knowing she was slowly starting to break McGee out of his scared little shell. Maybe D.C. wouldn't be so bad after all.

"It will be great to have you nearby, my dear," Ducky told her, happy that he would be able to see her more frequently than her one or two visits to D.C. per year.

"Yea!" Tony cried excitedly. "I can't wait to start playin catch with you and maybe even shoot some hoops and…"

"Not so fast Tony!" Ziva objected.

"We have dibs on her first!" Abby cried, taking hold of Emily's arm and Ziva followed suit grabbing the other.

"Do I get a say?" Gibbs asked, breaking up the argument.

"Gibbs, you promised," whined Abby.

"Yea, I guess I did," he admitted.

"We best go now, Abby, before he changes his mind," suggested Ziva.

"Oh good idea! See ya my silver fox. We'll have her back in a week as we promised," Abby hollered, as they started to drag Emily away.

"Hold up a sec, guys," Emily cried, convincing Abby and Ziva to stop dragging her away.

Hurrying over to her father, she gave him a quick hug. "Bye, Dad. Thanks for letting Ziva and Abby borrow me for the week."

"Anytime. I'll see you soon," he said kissing the top of her head before she ran off after Abby and Ziva to catch up with her two favorite people.

If Emily thought the two were actively hyper at the airport, she didn't have the words to describe what they were like once in the safety of Ziva's car. Reminding her a little of herself when she used to tell her mother about how her day at school went, Abby started to bombard her with questions. "So how did the silver fox convince you to come back? Speaking of which, how could you walk off like that? Why didn't you just stay with Ziva or me?"

"Abby…" Emily tried to interrupt.

"Why did you run off back to Mexico? How is Mike by the way? Oh and how did you father figure out who you are? Ducky and I missed that part. Why…"

"ABBY!" Emily cried causing Abby to instantly quiet and Ziva to start snickering from the driver's seat. "One question at a time please," she laughed.

"Yes, Abby. We have her for a whole week. They'll be plenty of time to cover everything," Ziva joked.

"Right," Abby nodded. "Sooo," she said, turning to Emily, waiting for her to answer one of her many questions

"Okay, let's see," Emily started, trying to recall all the things Abby wanted to know. "I left for stupid reasons and yea, I know it was a dumb thing to do 'cause my Dad's a great guy and really wants to be part of my life."

"And don't you forget it," Abby ordered, defending Gibbs. Not that she needed to. Emily now finally understood that and would give him and honest chance. Hollis or no Hollis. "So how'd he find out?" Abby asked excitedly, desperate to know what she missed.

"My eyes," Emily told her simply, knowing the story would hardly live up to Abby's expectations.

"Oh…yea that will do it," Abby agreed, slightly disappointed that there was no crazy story about Gibbs' uncanny ability to simply just know _everything._

"Alright what else was there?" Emily thought out loud, running all of Abby's questions through her mind. "Oh yea…I went back to Mexico because I was mad and didn't know what else to do. But yes, that was really stupid, I know. Mike, on the other hand, is doing well. I'm still a little nervous about whether he'll be able to manage on his own with his index finger gone. Just don't tell him I said that because I would be beyond dead!"

"We will not say a word," Ziva promised. "I do believe that he shall handle himself just fine and if he does not, he will find some excuse to come back up here."

"Okay, now tell us all the juicy details of the Boss man's softer side!" Abby ordered anxiously.

"Um…I don't know if he'd want me to…"

"Now, Emily!" they both cried, leaving no room for argument.

"Okay…Okay," Emily conceded, finally giving in and recapping everything that happened in Mexico, knowing her father was going to kill her when he found out.

[][][][][][]

Gibbs couldn't help but chuckle as he watched Abby and Ziva quite literally drag his daughter away to start their girls' week. He knew Emily was nervous he might feel cheated if she acted excited to be spending the week catching up with the girls. But he certainly didn't feel as if she were choosing them over him. After all, this little girls' week had been his idea.

He knew how close she was to Ziva and Abby and that living in Mexico for the past seven years had limited the amount of time the three could spend together and thought the least he could do was provide them with some time to make up for that. Plus it gave him the opportunity to put together the big surprise he had planned for his daughter without worrying about her catching him in the act.

And speaking of the surprise he needed to get a move on with that if he was going to finish in time. "DiNozzo, McGee, let's go," he hollered over to where the two were lazily sprawled out, using the airport seats as beds. "Ducky, make sure Palmer picks up dinner on his way and then meet us at my place."

"Will do, Jethro. I must say I am looking forward to this week," he said, before hurrying off to go collect Palmer.

After telling Ducky he would see him and Palmer soon, he turned back to find the boys still asleep. "DINOZZO! MCGEE!" He smirked as the two instantly jumped up, looking rather disheveled.

"Sorry, Boss," they apologized, hurrying over to Gibbs.

Glancing back and forth between the two, Gibbs waited a moment before slapping them both in the back of the head. "Get a move on," he ordered heading off in the direction of the parking garage to find DiNozzo's car.

The two looked at each other before jogging off to catch up with Gibbs. "Where we going, Boss?" Tony asked, curiously.

"The girls are having a bonding week, so we're having a guys' week," he told them as if it should be obvious.

"Wait…we're all staying over your place for a week. And did you say bonding?"

"Yea, you're all stayin at my place and we are not bonding. At least not in the way the girls are. Ducky's already gotten all you guys' stuff together so I'll make it an order if I gotta."

"I got plans later on this week."

"Cancel 'em, DiNozzo," Gibbs ordered.

"So…what are we going to be doing, Boss?" McGee asked, not hating this idea nearly as much as Tony was.

"Oh, you'll see McGee," Gibbs said slyly, making both DiNozzo and McGee quite nervous for what was to come.

[][][][][][]

"Um…guys? I know it's been awhile, but last time I checked, neither of you lived at the mall." Ziva chuckled as she remembered how Emily disliked shopping. She suspected it had a lot more to do with the fact that shopping was one of Jenny's favorite things than the actual activity itself. She knew they were probably pushing their luck, seeing as it was only Emily's first day back in D.C. But they promised Gibbs that they would do their part in this big surprise he had planned for the girl.

"Emily! You've been stuck living in a shack on a remote beach and you barely own anything," Abby exclaimed, shocked the girl wouldn't be overjoyed to shop after having lived on a remote beach for the past seven years. Ziva assumed Abby probably hadn't connected the dots back to Jenny as quickly as she, herself, did. After all, she had known the older redhead better than anyone, with the exception of possibly Gibbs. "Now, you may have not seen the Boss man's place before, but, trust me when I say, it leaves a lot to be desired. You're going to need a comforter and decorations if you don't want to feel like you're living in prison."

Ziva could tell Emily probably assumed Abby was exaggerating. This was Abby, after all. But Ziva knew Abby's description of Gibbs' place was most definitely understating things. "You might possibly even furniture. I've never actually seen the upstairs so I do not know that for sure, but judging from the downstairs it is a definite possibility," Ziva added for good measure, as she cut the wheel sharply into a parking space.

"God, Aunt Ziva! I see you're driving is still the same as it was back in Europe."

"I believe I got us here in one piece," Ziva objected. Personally, she thought she was getting better. After all, Emily did not puke like she used to when she was younger.

"That's debatable," Abby mumbled, still clutching the door for dear life.

"Oh suck it up! We have Gibbs' credit card, remember? I am thinking shopping free!" Ziva reminded Abby.

"The phrase is shopping spree, Ziva," Abby corrected. "Though technically we are shopping free since it's Gibbs' money, but, then again…"

"Okay, are we shopping or what?" Emily interrupted, before Abby could divulge into one of her excitable rants.

Despite her earlier misgivings about how the day would go, Ziva was pleasantly surprised to see that Emily handled herself rather well. There had only been one incident outside what used to be Jenny's favorite store, where she had froze for a moment before hurrying off to the restroom. Ziva had feared that would have been the end of the day right there, despite the fact that they needed a lot more stuff if they were to please Gibbs. Thankfully, though, Emily emerged after only a few minutes without any evidence of the tears Ziva was sure must have fallen. A skill she obviously picked up from her mother.

Still one incident was a huge improvement, especially with the anniversary of Jenny's death having been only a few days ago. Perhaps having Gibbs in her life was paying off already.

[][][][][][]

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Tony asked, staring at the brush in his hand. When Gibbs said boys' week in, Tony had expected lots of takeout, beer, hopefully a movie or two. What he did not expect was for Gibbs to throw paintbrushes at him and McGee basically the second they got through the door.

"It's a paintbrush, DiNozzo? What the hell do you think you're supposed to do with it?"

"Yea, I know that, Boss. I was talking more along the lines of what are we doing?" he clarified, starting to get a bad feeling about this.

"Come with me," Gibbs ordered, gesturing to the stairs. Tony glanced over at McGee, sharing a confused look. Neither of them had ever been upstairs, frankly they had barely been anywhere inside Gibbs' house other than the basement.

"We're going upstairs, McGee!" Tony exclaimed, once Gibbs was out of the room. "Tony, could you try not to look like a kid on Christmas. If Gibbs sees you like this, we'll _both_ be dead."

"We're about to venture into Gibbs' lair. This is dangerous stuff McProbie!" They were about to venture into a whole new aspect of Gibbs' world and Tony was beyond excited.

"DiNozzo! McGee! You guys have five seconds to get up here," Gibbs hollered from the top of the stairs.

Not wanting to miss his opportunity to see Gibbs' upstairs, Tony hurried up the stairs with McGee trailing closely behind him. However, Tony's excitement was quickly shattered when he noticed all the bedroom doors closed, except for the doorway Gibbs was currently standing in. "In here, DiNozzo. You aren't here to sightsee."

"Right, Boss," Tony nodded, following Gibbs into the room. Only there wasn't much to see. The walls were plain white, just like the rest of the house and if there had been furniture in there at one point, there certainly wasn't anymore. "So what are we here for?"

"Does this look like a teenage girl's room to you, DiNozzo?" Gibbs asked, as if everything should be completely obvious what the plan was.

"No, Boss. I would definitely not classify this as a teenage girl's room."

"Well, we have one week to change that."

Glancing down at the paintbrush in his hand and back up at the blank walls, the light bulb went off in Tony's head. "Ohhh…I get it. We're going to Emilyize the room."

"Yea, DiNozzo. Ziva and Abby picked out a color paint they thought Emily would like and they all should currently be at the mall shopping for whatever Emily wants for her room and some new clothes. So you guys are going to paint the walls for starters, while I…" he started to explain, before McGee interrupted.

"Uh…Boss? We're going to paint?"

"I believe I just said that, McGee," Gibbs said sternly, causing Tony to chuckle at his boss's aggravation.

"It's just that this shirt was rather expensive and…" McGee tried to explain nervously, under the intense Gibbs' stare.

"When I called you guys, I told you to dress casually, McGee."

On the verge of bursting out in laughter, Tony couldn't help it any longer and exclaimed, "That is casual for McWriter over there."

"I'll give you one of my t-shirts to change into until Ducky get's here with your…"

"Jethro?" Ducky called up the stairs. _'Convenient,'_ Tony noted, impressed with Ducky's timing.

"There you go, McGee. Ducky's got both you guys' stuff for the week, so you can change. You guys and Palmer are gonna start off painting the room. Ducky and I are gonna be workin outside on building her a desk. I figure if you boys take care of things in here, we'll be able to finish the desk by the end of the week. And then I think we'll all assemble the furniture, put in all the stuff the girl's buy today and hopefully the rest of her stuff will arrive by the end of the week," Gibbs told the, outlining the game plan for the week, as Ducky and Palmer arrived with their duffle bags and pizza.

"Pizza! You're the best, Boss," Tony exclaimed, eyes lighting up when he saw that one of them was his favorite pizza.

"Anytime, DiNozzo. There's beer in the fridge. Try not to get pizza on the floor, but if you do, not a big deal 'cause Ducky's going to order a nicer carpet tomorrow."

"Got it, Boss," Tony saluted.

"Now, let's get to work," Gibbs ordered as he and Ducky grabbed a box of pizza and headed downstairs.

Tony dove right into the pizza, while Palmer instantly grabbed a roll of blue tape to start outlining the room, probably trying to impress Ducky by doing everything Gibbs said, despite being an M.E. himself now. McGee, on the other hand, just stood there glancing about the room. Tony could tell this was not exactly how the Probie had planned to spend the weekend. Manual labor was not McGee's favorite thing in the world, after all, but Tony was actually looking forward to it. Gibbs even bought them pizza, willingly…without even being asked! Maybe this second chance at fatherhood for Gibbs would benefit all of them. "You heard the man, Probie. Let's get to work."

"You're not upset you cancelled your plans to spend your only week off all year painting and decorating?"

"Probie, this is for a girl who lost her mom and hasn't had a true home in seven years. It's the least we can do," Tony pointed out, believing that since he couldn't save Jenny all those years ago, he could at least look after her daughter like he would a sister. And judging by McGee instantly picked up a roll of tape himself at Tony's revelation, he could tell McGee would do the same. She'd only been in all of their lives for a short while now and she was already just as important to the two of them as she was to Abby, Ziva and Ducky. Jenny had been family and, therefore, Emily was too.

[][][][][][]

The whole house looked dark and unlived in from the outside. It was simple and cute, but it most definitely screamed 'bachelor-who-builds-boats-in-his-basement' or perhaps that was simply because she knew him. Abby told her he always left his door unlocked, so she decided to just let herself in rather than bother him with the doorbell. "Dad, I'm here…I mean I'm home," she hollered, dropping her bag on the floor, unsure if she should venture further into the house or not.

"Be right up," she heard her father's voice call and the sound of him running up a set of stairs. A door to her right opened up and her father came out looking dusty and disheveled, wiping his hands on his jeans. _'Must be the door to the basement,'_ she decided, figuring he must be building something. "I was beginning to wonder if Abby and Ziva would ever return ya," he laughed, opting to give her a kiss on the cheek rather than a sawdust covered hug.

"I think they were seriously considering kidnapping me permanently."

"Guess it's a good thing they have work on tomorrow and you have school. Now, come on in. I'll show ya around," he said leading her further into the house.

And if she thought the outside of the house looked unlived in it was nothing compared to the inside. Everything was white and there was barely any furniture. The dining room table was just a metal table and chairs, giving her the feeling that she was moving into an institution not her father's house. "Do you even know what paint is…or furniture?"

"Yea, the place could use a little work," he chuckled. Well, at least he knew how dreary the place looked. "Maybe we can fix this place up together or at least make it livable for ya," he suggested.

"I think between the two of us we could manage that," she agreed, just as his cell phone rang.

"I swear if this is DiNozzo!" he groaned, obviously annoyed that someone was interrupting his first day with his daughter. "While I get this why don't you go upstairs and put your bags in your room. It's the first room on the right."

"Sure," she said, as he answered his phone. Grabbing her bags she started up the stairs, stopping short when she noticed the door to her left was open. Thinking that he must have been distracted by his phone ringing and told her right when he meant left, she entered the room only to realize this was most certainly not her room, unless he thought she was six.

What surprised her the most was that this seemed to be the only room furnished with more than one item and the walls even had some color to them. Quite a bit of color actually with an obvious princess theme going on. It suddenly all made sense when she noticed the pink wooden letters above the bed, forming the name _Kelly_. This used to be her half-sister's room and it judging by the dust covering all the furniture, the room hadn't been touched since the young girl died.

Her dolls and stuffed animals were still lined up neatly on her pink castle bed, children's chapter books still lined the bookshelf, and drawings obviously done by a child still decorated the walls. She suddenly understood why everything else in the house seemed so impersonal and unlived in. Her father couldn't bring himself to sell the home he once lived in with his family, so he tried to erase them from his everyday life. Painted over the walls, either packed up or threw out everything from that period of his life, replacing it all with only what was necessary to survive. Because that seemed to be all you ever managed to do after losing the people most important to you. You simply survived.

But this room…Kelly's room was the one thing he couldn't bring himself to change. This was a shrine to the one person he couldn't bear to forget. It was the one place he allowed to remain untouched because, as her mother once explained to her, it was one thing to bury a child another to forget them.

Realizing being in this room was a really bad idea, she started to leave before her father could catch her, but something in the corner of her eye stopped her dead in her tracks. Placing her bags on the floor, she walked over to the nightstand and picked up the framed photograph that had been displayed there. The young girl, obviously Kelly, looked so much like her father. Her hair had a light brown tint to it instead of the deep red Emily had, but they both had Gibbs eyes. She was cute and surely would have grown up to be gorgeous had she lived longer. The other person in the photo was an older red head, smiling brightly next to Kelly. This had to be Shannon and it would have been an understatement to say she was beautiful. Looking at the two smiling happily at the camera, she suddenly understood why these two women would always be the most prominent people in her father's life. The three of them must have been the perfect family.

With that in mind, she knew for a fact she should get out of here fast, but when she turned around she jumped at the sight of her father in the doorway. "Dad!" she cried in surprise. "I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't have, but the door was open…I thought you might have meant left instead of right. I've always been bad at directions, you can ask my…" she stuttered out her apology before freezing when she realized she'd been about to say he could ask her mom.

"It's okay," he told her, walking over and resting a comforting hand on her shoulder, telling her with his actions that he wasn't angry. She watched him glance sadly around the room. "I never could…"

"I know why you didn't change anything in here," she said, relieving him of having to explain things. "Same reason I never touched any of the boxes my mother left until I packed up to move here. She stacked in the corner of the room when she was relocating me to Mexico and, after she died, I could never bring myself to even go near them."

They were quiet for a while, just standing there in Kelly's room, neither knowing what to say or do. After she couldn't take the silence any longer, Emily finally plucked up the courage to say, "Shannon was beautiful…And Kelly? She was adorable. You think she'd mind me calling her adorable?"

And much to her surprise, that earned her a smile out of him. "If Kelly was here right now, she'd be nine years older than you, so I think she would probably kill you for calling her adorable while secretly loving. She always wanted a sister."

"Yea so did I," she said, staring at the photograph before walking over to return it to its rightful place.

"You can keep that, if you like."

"Are you sure?" she asked, not wanting to disrupt anything in the perfectly aligned room.

"I think Kelly would have liked you to have a photo of her," he said, showing that he was truly okay it. "Your room's across the hall, if you want to find a place for it," he suggested, picking up her bags. She eyed him suspiciously wondering what had gotten him so excited or at least as excited as she thought he could be. But choosing to play along, she brushed passed him and headed across the hall to her room.

After opening the door, she stood frozen in place. Instead of the white walls and scarce furniture she'd been expecting, she found a room painted a deep violet, stock full of furniture, decorated with everything she bought when she went shopping with Abby and Ziva. There were photographs of her and her mother framed on the dresser, a brand new television, far more modern that the at least thirty year old one downstairs in the living room, all her trophies from softball were in a display case.

There was so much to take in; she found it impossible to do so at once. It was all so overwhelming, she felt herself tearing up at the gesture. She hadn't really had a room of her own since she lived with her mother and here she was in a room so perfect she couldn't even have dreamed it up. "You did all this," she finally managed to squeak out. "For me?"

"Yea…I thought you deserved better than the bed frame and white walls that were in here before, so I had the girls take you for the week, so the rest of us fix the place up. You like it?"

"Like it?" she asked, shocked. Did he have any idea where she'd been living for seven years? She loved Mike, but he seriously had no decorating skills whatsoever. "I love it!"

"Really?" he asked.

"Dad, this is beyond amazing!" She reiterated, as she decided to put her photo of Shannon and Kelly on her new desk. "You made this, didn't you?" she asked once she had a clear look at the desk. It was stained to match the rest of her furniture, but its design was clearly different.

"Yea, but if you want something that goes better with…"

"No!" she interrupted, horrified that he could even think she would want something else. This was quite possibly the most amazing thing anyone had ever done for her. "This is perfect." As she placed the photo on the corner of her desk, she noticed a book sitting on top of her closed laptop. She smiled when she realized what it was. "A Driver's Ed Manuel?"

"I know you're a grade ahead of your age bracket, so figure the sooner you read it, the sooner we can get you your permit. Then if we can get you straight into driver's ed and you and me go out drivin a little bit each day, you won't be so far behind the other kids in your grade," he explained.

Blinking back a few tears that threatened to fall, and ran over to give him a huge hug, not caring that he was covered in sawdust. "I can't believe you did all this. Thank you so much, for everything!"

[][][][][][]

Her reaction at the sight of her new room had been better than he expected. He had been nervous if he might be overstepping some boundaries or pushing her to far too fast, especially with the framed photographs of her and Jenny. But she'd been so enthralled by his gesture that she spent the better part of the afternoon exploring every little detail of her new room, apparently not wanting to overlook anything he and the boys had done.

He gave her some space, as Mike suggested, and let her explore while he went down and worked on the newest boat he was building. After the boat he built honoring Kelly, he had hoped never to have to build another one. Not because he didn't enjoy doing so, but simply because he built them to memorialize people he lost and he would rather never build another boat than loose someone he cared deeply for. But he'd lost another woman he loved and after seven years, he thought maybe it might be best if he finally laid her to rest at sea.

"Dad?" he heard his daughter calling from somewhere upstairs.

"I'm down in the basement. Just give me a sec and I'll…" he started to holler up to her, believing it best if she didn't learn he was building a boat for her mother just yet, but the basement door opened before he could finish.

"Mom said you build boats down here," she said as she entered, before stopping at the top of the stairs when she noticed the skeleton of the boat. "Apparently she was right."

"Sometimes I build other things, but yea…boats are kinda my thing," he shrugged, as she jogged down the stairs.

He smiled as she ran her fingers along the ribs in awe. "I used to build some stuff for Uncle Mike. Fix things up around the house and stuff, you know? But I've never built something as complex as a boat."

"Not all that complicated. Bet you'd pick right up on it pretty quickly."

She nodded and he could tell she wasn't paying all that much attention. Instead her eyes scanned over the skeleton, rather impressed, taking in everything. She stayed quiet for a long while, just staring at the boat and he took the opportunity to observe her. The wheels in her head were clearly turning, but he couldn't determine what she was thinking. Eventually she asked, "Who's this one going to be named after?"

Her question surprised him and he wasn't entirely sure how to answer her. Ziva updated him that Emily was surprisingly doing better in dealing with her mother's death. Something about the girl only breaking down once when they were shopping at the mall. He didn't really understand that but he'd take her word on it. However, after her storming of when she saw him with Hollis, he wasn't sure he wanted her to know he planned to call the boat either Jenny or her full name, Jennifer. "What makes you think I'm naming it after anyone?"

"Mom told me you name your boats after people you've lost and are finally ready to move on. You built one for Shannon, two of your ex-wives, and…" she trailed off as a light bulb seemed to go off in her head and he feared she figured out who he planned to name the boat after. "This one is for my mom, isn't it?" she whispered and if it wasn't so quiet in the house, he probably wouldn't have even heard her.

"Emily, it's not that I want to move on…" he tried to explain that it just seemed like it was time to let her go, but he really didn't know how to tell her without upsetting her.

"It's okay if you are," she interrupted and he was surprised to hear how sincere she sounded. "Maybe we could…build it together? Try and move on together?" she asked.

He smiled at the thought of the two of them working to build Jenny's boat together. Maybe building the boat might help her like it always seemed to help him. Picking up a second sander off his work bench, he tossed it over to her and she caught it easily. "With the grain," he instructed.

"Got it," she nodded with a smile, focusing her attention on one of the ribs. He watched her sand for a little while and could see she was a natural. Obviously she'd been understating her talent when she said she simply patched up a few things around Mike's house. He observed her a while longer, before he started sanding himself.

After a while of sanding, her voice broke the silence. "So…do you like talk about the person when you're building the boat or is it just more of a reverence thing?"

He never really thought about what he did during the process of building the boats that seemed to make letting the person go easier. He supposed, now that she mentioned it was all the memories that seemed to crop up while he built his boats. Like the most current one of the time he attempted to teach Jenny how to sand a boat, only for the two of them to end up performing another activity on his basement floor…not that he could share that particular story with his daughter. "Well, I don't usually have someone around to talk to, so I suppose I just sort of think about the person," he explained, before suggesting, "But it seems this time I do have someone to talk to, so maybe we could talk about your mom." He hoped the suggestion wouldn't bring up too many painful memories for the girl, but there was so much he wanted to know, so much he missed out on.

"Yea, after all, I'm sure there are a million things you want to ask."

"There is, but why don't you go first," he said, testing the waters. It might be easier on her if he shared his memories first. Plus, there were so many things he wanted to ask, he didn't have a clue where to start.

"Okay," she agreed, but went quiet for a while, making him scared he might be pushing too hard. But eventually she asked, "What was she like back when you first met her?"

Waves of memories cascaded to the front of his mind all at once and he chuckled a bit as he remembered the first day he met her. "When I first met your mother, she was stubborn as hell. She was the only agent who didn't fall victim to my Gibbs' state, as all the probies call it. She would always call me out whenever I was being a bastard. Didn't matter to her that I was her boss. She could make me laugh and for a while I felt like I was whole again.

"I remember this one time back when we actually were just partners I'd had a really rough week. Diane, one of my ex-wives, and I were fighting and if you knew the woman, you would know fighting with her is worse than combat. So your mom dragged me out to a bar and challenged me to a drinking contest. Little did I know, she can hold her liquor like no tomorrow, so I ended up drunk as a stone, stumbling all over the place, while she walked out of the bar in her insanely high heels like nothin happened. I can't remember much about that night, but I do remember one thing. That was the day I realized I was in love with her."

From there, she had him recounting everything – all their major missions, how they went from friends to lovers (the appropriate parts of that anyway) how young and carefree she'd been back then – until sanding had been long forgotten and they were sitting on the basement floor laughing. He couldn't wait till he could get to asked her all sorts of questions, but for now, he was content on being the one to share because somehow he already knew in the end they were both going to be just fine.

[][][][][][]

Most kids her age hated school, couldn't wait to graduate and move on to college. Most would find it ridiculous that they had to start at a new school with only a few weeks left to the school year. For her, though, while she had enjoyed her week off with Abby and Ziva, school had been the only source of normalcy in her entire life. No matter whether she was living in Europe, Mexico, D.C, whether she lived with her mother, her father, or Mike, whether her life was in danger or not, school was always the same. The language she was taught in might change, but she still had to get up insanely early, do homework, take tests, and ultimately pass each class at the end of the year. And for someone whose life thus far had just been one giant topsy-turvy mess, even the slightest sense of normalcy was a godsend.

But despite that sense of normalcy, she was even happier to hear the bell ring for the end of the day. Now, she just needed to figure out what direction her house was in….

"Shepard?" a voice called from called. She froze for a moment. While most of these kids were the same people she went to elementary school with, no one really remembered her and if they did it was simply as the girl who disappeared after her mother was murdered. It wasn't like she had any friends back then. Sure there were a number of people she played with during school, but she never saw anyone outside of school. Mike's granddaughter Amira had been the closest thing to a best friend she ever had in her entire life, but she and her mother Leyla moved out of Mike's place a few years back and after that it had just been her and Mike once more.

Only one person had ever called her Shepard before, but he couldn't possibly be here. Yet, when she turned around, she was met by his familiar face. His features were much older, but even after seven years, she still recognized him and he was just as cute as he had been when he was nine. Possibly even more so! "Carson?"

"My God, Shepard! It is you! I haven't seen you in forever. Heard you moved away?"

"Did for a while. Mexico if you can believe that," she explained, still completely blown away to be seeing Carson here. While she had only known him for that brief weekend, he stayed with her and her mother, if she were perfectly honest with herself, she had developed a tiny nine-year old crush on him back then.

Carson went quiet for a moment and Emily picked up on the mood change. He seemed nervous about something. Eventually he broke the silence and she suddenly understood why he hesitated. "I wanted to call you…after…well, you know. You and your mother were really good to me that weekend I stayed at your house and I…well, to be honest I had this crazy idea that since I stayed with you guys when my family was in trouble that you could stay with us. Stupid nine year old ideas, you know." Emily laughed a little at that and was surprised to find that talking about her mother with Carson didn't make her feel like she wanted to run off and cry. It almost felt natural and easy with him. "My mom said it probably wouldn't be a good idea to call you though," he added solemnly.

"Back then…it probably wouldn't have been, but now…I appreciate the sentiment, Carson," she said, reassuring him that he hadn't done anything wrong by bringing up her mother. He still looked a bit worried, so she decided it best to shift gears a little bit. "What about you? Your family doesn't still live on the outskirts of D.C. near the woods?" She remembered he lived pretty far away because his father taught survival classes there, but he would never be able to make the commute to this school if that were still the case.

He sighed in relief that he hadn't upset her, before happily continuing to catch up on everything with her. "Naw. My Dad still goes out there on weekends to teach his classes, but my Mom got a promotion. She actually works on the Navy Yard now, so we needed to be closer to D.C." he explained and it felt so fun to have a normal conversation with someone her age. She couldn't remember the last time she had that opportunity. "When'd ya move back? I can't believe I haven't seen ya all year!"

"I just moved back actually. I live with my Dad now. He just found out about everything, so it's all really new."

"That's great. Agent Gibbs is a good guy. Haven't seen him in ages," Carson said. Emily smiled, silently agreeing with him. She remembered everything her father had done for Carson and his father and knew back then Carson definitely had a bit of hero worship for Gibbs.

"You should come over sometime or stop in at NCIS. I'm sure he'd love to see you," she suggested, hoping her desire to see Carson again didn't ring in to desperate sounding. After all, a guy as good looking as he turned out to be more than likely already had a girlfriend.

"Yea, that would be awesome!" he exclaimed excitedly and she found his enthusiasm contagious. "You heading home now?"

"Yea…Abby and I are supposed to have a late lunch. I just need to figure out what direction my house is…last time I lived here I was nine and my mom drove me everywhere" she finally admitted, feeling slightly embarrassed that she couldn't remember what direction she lived in.

"You're not driving home? You're a junior, aren't you?"

"I skipped a grade so I don't have my license just yet."

"Oh that's right, I forgot you were like super smart! Most of my grade won't be able to drive till next year either. Luckily my birthday was in September so I got to start driver's ed earlier than most. One of the benefits of having an early birthday. I'm actually heading to the Navy Yard to meet my Mom. I could drop you off at NCIS while I'm there."

"Really? That would be great," she said thankfully. She didn't think her father would be too happy if he found out she was wondering around D.C. completely lost.

"Awesome. Oh and if you're not busy Friday night, I'd be happy to give you a tour of D.C. show you the best places to eat and hang out," he offered.

"Sounds great," she said, excitedly.

Carson apparently was still as much of a charmer as he was when he was nine because instead of the two heading in their separate directions once they got to the Navy Yard, he insisted upon walking her to NCIS to insure she arrived safely. Something about it being the least he could do for Agent Gibbs. But seeing as she was having a rather enjoyable time catching up with Carson, she opted not to protest the chauvinistic gesture and even put up with the overprotective and suspicious glances Agent Peterson sent Carson when they checked in. Why did everyone assume a girl couldn't be friends with a guy without him breaking her heart?

"If looks could kill," Carson joked once they were safely in the elevator.

"Sorry about that," she muttered, annoyed that everyone seem to believe she was incapable of taking care of herself. For God sakes, her self-defense training had been conducted by Ziva the assassin!

"Nothin to be sorry about. It good that everyone's lookin after you…" he said, before cautiously adding, "Bet your mom would be glad they are."

"Yea…she would," Emily sighed and while it still hurt to talk about her mom, it somehow just felt easier with Carson.

The elevator reached the floor before Carson could say anything else, but Emily could see that he was glad to see talking about her mom hadn't upset her. Tony glanced up from his desk after hearing the elevator ring and his face instantly lit up. "Emily!" He greeted from across the room.

"Hey Tony!" she hollered, hurrying over to his desk, with Carson trailing along behind her.

Before she could fully reach Tony's desk to thank him for all the work he did on her new room or even reintroduce Carson to him, she was meat with the very worried stature of her father. "Emily, what are ya doin here? Is everything okay?"

"Hi Dad," she greeted, pulling his worried form into a reassuring hug. "Everything's fine. Abby was going to pick me up at home for a late lunch, but I may have forgotten to ask you how to get home this morning. Luckily, Carson was heading to the Navy Yard to meet his mom and offered to drop me off."

"Crap…was I supposed to pick you up today? And wait a second, who is Carson?" he asked franticly, not liking the idea that she had gotten a lift from someone he hadn't performed a thorough background search on.

"No, you weren't supposed to pick me up. I was going to walk home. And Carson is…"

"Hi, Agent Gibbs. I don't know if you remember me, but I…" Carson said, stepping forward to introduce himself.

"Carson? 'Course, I remember ya now. Been awhile. How your parents?"

"They're really good, sir," Carson said, but as Gibbs started to give him similar suspicious looks as Agent Peterson had downstairs, he decided it might be time to go. "I actually have to go meet my mom now, though. It's nice to see you again, sir," he added sincerely, before turning his attention to Emily. "If you're looking for someone to have lunch with tomorrow at school, just scope me out. I'm usually at a table in the back. Otherwise I'll pick you up around seven Friday night?"

"Sounds great. Thank you, Carson," she said, kissing his cheek, just as she did when she said goodbye to him seven years ago.

Her eyes followed him across the bullpen until the elevator doors shut and when she turned back, she found her father, Tony, and McGee, who seemed to have appeared from nowhere, all standing there with their arms crossed, not looking to happy to have caught her with a boy. "Don't stare at me like that. Carson's just a friend from back in the day who offered to help me get reacquainted with D.C. so you guys can drop the overprotective father and brothers' act," she ordered, throwing a menacing glare of her own at them.

"Oh he better be just a friend," Gibbs warned.

"Or we will be sending Ziva after him," Tony threatened.

"And don't forget Abby know how to not leave any forensic evidence behind," McGee added, having apparently gotten passed his awkward stage in dealing with her and instantly fell into his brotherly role.

"If you boys keep this up, pretty soon the whole agency will be after the poor kid," a voice from behind laughed and Emily saw all three of them instantly tense. Wanting to see who had brought this new found tension into the room, Emily turned around to see someone she didn't recognize at all. "Sorry to interrupt," the man apologized, before holding a hand out to her. "Director Leon Vance. It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Shepard."

"Emily, please," she corrected, shaking his hand, not liking his presence at all. She may not recognize him, but she did recognize the name Vance and the one thing she knew about him was that he should not hold the title Director. Actually she was pretty sure her mother had specifically wrote on the man's performance review that he should never be made Director of NCIS.

"I'm sure you've heard this a hundred times, but I'm sorry about your mother, Emily. I like to think I'm doing an okay job, but NCIS hasn't been the same without her," he said, but she could hear the thick sarcasm in his voice, telling her he most certainly believed NCIS was better off without her mother.

"Thank you, sir," she said to be polite, but she shifted uncomfortably, not liking the intense scrutiny he was observing her with. "If all of you don't mind, I'm really late to meet Abby."

"By all means," Vance said and Gibbs nodded his approval, outwardly displaying his dislike for how Vance was eyeing her as well.

"It was nice meeting you, sir," she told him, before quickly turning around and giving her father a kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you at home, Dad." She hurried off towards the elevator that would take her to Abby's lab, hollering over her shoulder, "Bye Tony. Bye McGee."

Once in the elevator, she breathed a sigh of relief, but she knew something was most definitely wrong

_Authors Note: Sorry about the long wait for the update. It's finals time at my college so I've had like three papers and a few tests. Plus I wasn't too thrilled with how this chapter turned out, but hopefully it's an okay for you guys. I just wanted to do some snapshots of how everyone's adjusting and needed to introduce Carson into the story but I promise the rest of the story will be about the plot because Emily is most definitely not the only secret Jenny had. As always, thanks for reading and the reviews!_


	8. Mother From Hell

Chapter Eight: Mother from Hell

_Authors Note: Ummm… okay so I wasn't expecting them to kill Mike! I guess that makes this story more AU now than Post JD which I'm kind of upset about because I was trying not to deviate as much as possible but oh well. I'm officially out of school for the summer so I should be back on track with updates. It may have to be every other week because I work fulltime but I'll try and do so every week. Sorry this chapters not the greatest but I promise the next one will be much better._

_Thanks for reading and all your reviews. I love that it seems like a lot of you are picking up the small hints about what will be happing in upcoming chapters. Anyway hope you enjoy and keep the reviews coming!_

**January 2006**

On a daily basis she felt twinges of guilt here and there about how all the secrecy must be affecting her daughter's life, but on days like today, Emily's birthday, the guilt seemed to be so overwhelming she could drown in it. Not that her daughter seemed all that affected. Frankly she appeared to be having a wonderful time at their small dinner party at Valentino's with Ziva, Ducky, and Mrs. Mallard who at least seemed to be half with them mentally today. Still, Jenny hated the fact that she couldn't give Emily the typical party a girl her age would normally have. One with a theme, where you invited her entire class, she would receive tons of presents, and have fun with children her on age.

On the plus side, though, Emily hadn't really wanted any of that. Jenny thought it wouldn't be bad if she had a few friends over for a party, maybe not all twenty six kids in her second grade class, but certainly some of them. Only when Jenny asked about it, she said she just wanted to invite Ziva and Ducky, so since Emily loved their girls' night dinner at Valentino's a few months back she thought that might at least be something special for the girl.

And it looked as if she'd chosen the right place because Emily was thriving from all the attention she was getting from Ziva and Duck, as well as the waiter and hostess, who were both amazed at how sociable and well spoken she was for a seven year old. Not to mention, she loved shopping for new dresses with Jenny and having the opportunity to go out and show them off.

"Well, now that dinner's over, I believe it would be an appropriate time for you presents, my darling. What do you say to that?" Ducky asked Emily, sharing a glance with Jenny who nodded her approval.

"Okay!" She cried excitedly. As if she would actually object to presents!

"This is from my mother and me," he told her, placing a small box in front of her.

Emily politely read the card before opening her gift. She carefully undid the wrapping paper and opened the tiny jewelry box. Her eyes widened brightly and she quickly leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, Ducky!" She cried happily.

"Awe you're welcome, my dear."

"Thank you, Mrs. Mallard," she added, but she seemed far too interested in eyeing a man at a nearby table.

"Let me see, what you got, sweetheart," Jenny said, holding her hand out for the jewelry box. Emily handed it to her and Jenny opened it to find a beautiful silver charm bracelet. Jenny smiled at all the sterling silver charms: one with her initials E.Z.S. with a heart around it, a baseball, an eeyore, a dolphin, and a boat. All of her favorite things and the one thing she associated with her father, as well as, room to add more. The perfect present. Jenny only wished she'd thought of it. "This is beautiful, Ducky."

"A beautiful gift, for a beautiful girl," he said flicking Emily's blushing nose making her giggle.

"Open mine next," Ziva said, placing a gift bag on the table excitedly. Emily excitedly dove into the tissue paper, pulling out a brand new, pink and black baseball glove.

"A new glove! Thanks, Auntie Ziva!"

"You're welcome. The season is come soon and I thought you may want something better than that mousy old thing we used to play catch with over in Europe."

"It's ratty not mousy, Ziva," Jenny whispered.

"Right, sorry…wrong animal. But that's not all," she told Emily, when the girl started to put the glove back in the bag. At the idea of more presents, she was fishing through the bag the second Ziva finished her sentence.

"Awesome!" Emily cried, lighting up as she pulled out a box of paperclips. Ziva certainly had an interesting idea of presents. First a lock picking kit and now paperclips.

Jenny looked back and forth between the two, getting an uneasy feeling about Emily and Ziva's excitement. "Do I even want to know what the paperclips are for?"

The two shared a suspicious glance with each other, making her even surer she really did not want to know, before saying a collective, "No."

"All right, then. I suppose it's my turn now, though I don't know how I can possibly follow a box of…paperclips?" She said, handing Emily her present, still unsure what those two were up to.

Excited to see what her mother got her, Emily tore open the package and opened the box. Jenny fidgeted nervously, worried her gift might be too similar to Ducky's. Originally she planned to buy Emily some toys and some new clothes, but then she realized that would hardly be something special for the girl. While she hated to admit it, Jenny tended to spoil the girl with those things all throughout the year. So instead she opted to give her the heart shaped locket her grandfather gave her as a child. Her grandfather had a 'J' inscribed into one side, so on the opposite side, Jenny had an 'E' inscribed and inside she put a photo of her and Emily, as well as a photo of her and Jethro under the Eiffel Tower in Paris. "My grandfather gave that to me, but I want you to have it," she told her daughter, as the girl twirled it around before opening and observing the photos.

When Emily didn't say anything, Jenny started to worry that she chose the wrong thing and should have gone with the new American Girl Doll she'd been considering. Then the girl hopped out of her seat and wiggled her way up onto Jenny's lap, surprising her. Emily then wrapped her arms around Jenny's neck, whispering, "I love you, Mommy."

"Awe, I love you too, baby girl. Happy Birthday," Jenny reciprocated, thrilled that Emily like her gift. Emily held the necklace out to her mother, before turning around and lifting up her hair as a means for Jenny to clip the necklace on. Jenny did so and then reached over for the bracelet and clipped that onto her wrist as well, placing a kiss on the top of her head. "You look beautiful."

"Thanks, Mommy," she said, hopping off Jenny's lap at the sight of dessert heading their way. She may be a highly intelligent child, but in the end she was still just like any other seven year old believing dessert to be the best meal of the day.

**February 2006**

An afternoon off! Jenny still had no idea how she managed to weasel the afternoon off, but she certainly was not going to question it. Instead, when she saw that the morning was slow and the afternoon would be slower, she decided to take off and surprise Emily when she got home from school. Today was Emily's last day of school before February vacation and the girl was slightly disappointed that Jenny wouldn't be able to take the week off too, so Jenny hoped the three day weekend might cheer her up a bit.

The doorbell rang surprising Jenny a little. It was a little too early for Emily to be home from school. Plus Emily or Stanley would just use their key, not ring the bell. Confident her security detail would have insured the person not to be a threat, she left her gun in her study drawer and opened the door, expecting to see Jethro. Only the person on the other side was most certainly not her ex-lover.

'_I should have known. Jethro doesn't use the bell!'_ she chastised herself, none too pleased to see her visitor and even less pleased to see that her visitor had a suitcase.

"Hello, Mom," she greeted unenthused. She and her mother had been more than estranged since her father's death. Frankly, their relationship was doomed long before that. But Jenny was hardly surprised to see her mother showing up. She always seemed to decide to pop in and chastise all of Jenny's life choices at the worst opportune moments.

"Well, hello to you too, Jennifer." And worst of all…she insisted upon referring to her as Jennifer and not Jenny. Only Ducky was allowed to do that and get away with it, as far as Jenny was concerned.

"What are you doing here, Mom?" Jenny asked, still not letting the woman in, sincerely hoping the woman was not here to stay long.

"I'm here for Emily's birthday. Now are you going to let me in?" her mother asked, trying to brush by Jenny into the house, but Jenny blocked her way.

"Her birthday was a month ago," Jenny spat, upset that her mother couldn't even remember that minor detail. She was hardly the model grandmother, barely paying the girl much attention due to the fact that Jenny hadn't been married when she conceived her.

"Well, it's not exactly easy to fly from Los Angeles to D.C. with all the snow you have this time of year," finally moving past Jenny into the house, making Jenny seriously wish she hadn't taken the afternoon off.

Her mother made herself comfortable, pouring herself a drink and settling into a seat in Jenny's study like she owned the place. "Why are you suddenly taking an interest in your granddaughter's life?" asked, knowing her mother was most certainly not here to celebrate Emily's birthday. She wasn't a trained investigator for nothing.

"Can't a grandmother come and give her granddaughter a gift for her birthday?"

"A grandmother? Yes. You? No," Jenny objected, taking a seat in her desk chair. Deciding to pretend to have work to do to avoid conversation with her mother, she put her glasses on and grabbed of an old report to make herself look busy.

"Work…work…work. Even at home. Your father would be so proud," she reprimanded. "After all, that's all he ever did whenever he wasn't overseas."

"It's an unfortunate job hazard for military personnel, as well as NCIS agents, especially when you're the Director," she commented nonchalantly, pretending to be only half listening while working in the hopes her mother would take the hint and shut up. Not that her mother would ever take the hint.

But her mother never got the chance to retaliate because the front door opened and a small voice called out. "Naomi, I'm home. Is it okay if I call Mommy at work?"

Smiling at her daughter's voice, Jenny instantly got up, halting when she remembered her mother was here. The last thing she wanted was her mother harassing her daughter. "Naomi?" Emily called out again, sounding a bit worried.

Remembering, she sent Naomi home, Jenny quickly ran out to the hall, so as not to scare the girl further. "I know I'm not Naomi, but I hope I'm just as fun," Jenny joked from the study doorway.

The girl whipped around quickly, lighting up when she saw Jenny. "Mommy!" she cried, running over and jumping into Jenny's arms.

"Hey, sweetheart," Jenny greeted, before realizing she would have to bring Emily to see her grandmother. "So, I was planning on us spending the afternoon together, but we have a surprise visitor," Jenny explained, trying to be polite. Just because she and her mother had their difficulties did not mean Emily and her grandmother had to.

"Auntie Ziva?"

"No, actually it's…"

"Me," Jenny's mother finished, stepping into the hall.

Still in Jenny's arms, Emily glanced over at her grandmother, back at her mother, and then returned her glaze to her grandmother. "Hi," Emily greeted, slightly uncomfortable. She rarely saw her grandmother and, as smart as she was, Jenny didn't doubt she picked up on the animosity between her and Jenny.

"Hey there," Jenny's mother greeted. "Sorry I'm a little late for your birthday, but I did not want to miss it completely."

"That's okay. Thanks for coming," Emily said politely, but Jenny could tell this visit, however long it turned out to be, was most certainly going to be awkward and unpleasant for her and her daughter. Just what they needed!

[][][][][][]

Monday…Jenny had never been more thrilled to wake up and go to work Monday morning in her entire life. She and Emily had spent the entire weekend with her mother and Jenny had still yet to figure out what her ulterior motive for this visit was or even how long she planned on staying, which was driving Jenny crazy. Thankfully enough, for her sanity's sake, Naomi and Emily already had plans made in advance to go to the Zoo and Jenny had enough missions and meetings scheduled in MTAC to last her the whole day, providing them both with a day off from her mother.

She never imagined running MTAC missions would be beneficial for her stress level, but at the moment anything that got her mind off of her mother sounded fantastic. Which explained why when the doors to MTAC opened she hoped to God it was Jethro, whose mutual dislike of her mother would undoubtedly provide her with a distraction or at least a sympathetic ear.

The door shut far too quietly for it to be Jethro though, indicating someone who valued not interrupting was arriving. And Jenny smiled when she saw Ziva quickly sit in the seat beside her, so as to not block anyone's view of the screen for too long. Ziva…the next best thing to Jethro for a distraction. "Ziva," she greeted.

"Director," Ziva responded in kind, even though she knew she was allowed to refer to her as Jenny.

"What can I do for you?" Jenny asked, knowing that however much she wanted to discuss her mother's visit, Ziva obviously came here for a reason.

"A favor." Another one? She was starting to think Ziva might be trying too hard to impress Gibbs. Eventually the man was bound to get suspicious of her supposed 'contacts.'

"You want to go back to Israel?" Jenny joked, sympathetic of how difficult Gibbs could be to work for.

"No, I actually love it here." Well, that was good. Maybe Jenny could finally stop worrying about how Gibbs and Ziva were getting along. It would be nice to finally be able to cross that off her list. "Gibbs is a great teacher," Ziva added.

"You'll learn. He's like the Hope Diamond: a valuable gem," she told Ziva, winking, knowing Ziva would understand what she meant by that. "but it comes with a curse," she reminded.

Ziva smiled and Jenny could tell the younger woman desperately wished they weren't in the middle of MTAC so she could comment on just how valuable a gem Gibbs was to Jenny, but given the location she managed to restrain herself. Instead she asked, "Anyone I know in that car?"

"You know what they say: if you have to ask…" Jenny said, knowing she couldn't actually reveal the classified nature of the mission. But Ziva would catch her drift and judging by the smirk on her face, she most certainly did.

Jenny watched Ziva quickly glance about the room, insuring that everyone was busy and not listening in before asking, "So are we still taking Emily…_bearing_…tomorrow night?"

"It's called bowling, Ziva," Jenny corrected. "A bear is an animal."

"Yes, that is why I was getting confused. Tony forced me to watch a documentary on bears and they seem to be dreadful creatures. I did not see any reason why we would be taking a child to see a bear."

"They can be," Jenny agreed, rather amused. "But not to worry we are not going to find bears we are bowling."

"I thought a bowl was something you put food in?" Ziva asked, confused.

"It is, but _bowling_ is a type of sport…or activity, depending on one's definition of a sport. Anyway, I'm not sure if we will still be going," Jenny sighed, thinking of her mother and how furious she was at Jenny that Emily was going to the Zoo instead of spending time with her after she travelled across the country.

"Why? Just last week you were telling me how you could not wait to see my reaction to bowling and we were betting on who would win."

"My mother decided to drop in for Emily's birthday this week."

"But…Emily's birthday was last…"

"I know. I haven't figured out what her real reason for being here is, but one thing's for sure: it will not bode well for any of us."

"Perhaps she is trying to fix things between you two for Emily's sake," Ziva suggested, trying to be optimistic. But at Jenny's skeptical glare, Ziva admitted, "Yes, I see your point. That does not sound like the woman I met a few years ago."

"Not in the slightest," Jenny confirmed. "So…now that I've vented to you about my mother, what can I help you with?"

"Need information about executives at a cooperation of called Epsilon's Incorporated. Lawyer is intervening."

"I'll make some calls and I'll talk to the Attorney General about getting a warrant for the records the law office has," Jenny offered.

"Thank you, Director."

"So for tomorrow, how about we go to dinner around six and bowling afterwards. That is if Gibbs' lets you out in time, otherwise we'll go later on," Jenny said, deciding a night out with Emily and Ziva would sure as hell be better than yet another night with her mother.

"Changed you mind, yes?" Ziva laughed

"I figure if Emily has to spend all day with my mother, she'll probably be desperate to go out with us. I would be at least, though Emily's always been more tolerant than me."

"She will learn."

Finding out who the executive officers of Epsilon turned out to be more difficult than she believed, but luckily, being friends with the Attorney General paid off and she managed to get a warrant for Sean Oliver's Law Office. Only difficulty was getting stonewalled by his dozens of assistants before she managed to get through to him a day after talking to Ziva.

But, after a quick two minute phone call, she was grabbing the warrant out of her fax machine and heading downstairs to hopefully save McGee from having to call every judge in D.C. only to come up empty. "Okay, I'll let Gibbs know. Thank you," she overheard McGee tell someone over his telephone.

When he hung up, she decided to take advantage of the fact that McGee was alone and use her title as Director to get the Probie to update her on the case, seeing as Gibbs certainly wouldn't. "Let Gibbs know what, Agent McGee?" she asked, startling the poor boy. She felt bad that she needed to resort to using McGee to get the information she, as Director, needed. But, as long as Gibbs decided to keep this you-should-have-stayed-a-field-agent-if-you-wanted-to-know-these-things less on up, she was left with little choice.

"Uhh…" he tried to stall, glancing about for any of Gibbs, before giving in. "That Captain Wayne's widow is on her way up, Director."

"How much does she know?"

"I'm not sure ma'am," he explained, still nervously scoping out for Gibbs. "Gibbs returned with the cremains, but I don't know what he said to get them."

Considering they had the widow's husband's head downstairs in autopsy, the fact that the ashes she believed to belong to her husband were actually dirt, and even more so the fact that neither Jenny nor McGee knew what story Gibbs actually told the woman, this little visit could be potentially problematic. To put McGee at ease, she joked, "Let's hope he didn't say that we found her husband's head in a trunk."

Only that thought seemed to make him more nervous, obviously not sensing that she'd been kidding. "Well, I don't think that….would he?"

Laughing, she opted to gather some more information about the case before Gibbs showed up and called her out on it. "Have you gotten the warrant for Sean Oliver's Law Office yet?"

"Still working on it, ma'am. I put several calls in the Assistant U.S. Attorney's office, but their dragging their feet," he told her, as she knew he would.

"I expected they would," she admitted. "So I made a personal call to the Attorney General's office. Here's your warrant," she said, handing it over to him. She figured in exchange for dragging the information out of him when she knew it would piss Gibbs off she could at least allow McGee to take the credit for getting the warrant. She would find some other way to try and worm her way back into Gibbs' good graces.

He glanced down at the warrant and back up at her dumbfounded. "You can close your mouth, Agent McGee. It's not that impressive," she chuckled, knowing to a Probie being able to call the Attorney General himself was virtually unheard of.

The elevator dinged, distracting both of them from their conversation and alerting them to the arrival of Captain Wayne's widow. "Get Gibbs," Jenny ordered, knowing she would only be able to stall for so long without knowing what story Gibbs told the woman.

Leaving McGee to hunt down Gibbs, Jenny walked over and relieved Agent Peterson from escorting Mrs. Wayne. "Special Agent Gibbs is on his way. I'm…" she started to introduce.

"Did he make a positive identification?" the woman interrupted politely, seemingly desperate for information.

"A positive identification?" Jenny questioned, confused. What scenario had Gibbs concocted up this time? Suddenly and idea hit her and she started to see where Gibbs might have been headed with this. "On your husband's cremains?"

She nodded, diving into a recollection of how Gibbs said there was a paper mix-up and Gibbs had taken the remains to straighten everything out. "He said the paper mix-up could be resolved with my husband's teeth."

"If Special Agent Gibbs told you that, I'm sure it's the truth," Jenny assured her. "He's one of the most knowledgeable agents I've ever worked with," she added, hoping a compliment might reassure the woman that whatever Gibbs was doing with her husband's remains, he was handling them with the upmost respect.

"I got that impression. I'm glad he was assigned this," Mrs. Wayne agreed, comforting Jenny that the woman didn't suspect anything amiss with Gibbs story. That is until the woman added, "even if it is punishment." Punishment? Why on Earth would the woman believe Gibbs was assigned this as Punishment?

Glancing over towards the bullpen, Jenny saw Gibbs walking over, hesitating ever so slightly when he caught wind of the glare she was sending his way. "Punishment?" Jenny questioned, starting to lead the woman over to meet Gibbs.

"The new Director has it in for him," Mrs. Wayne explained.

He was seriously dead this time! He could not just go around claiming that the Director of NCIS considered verifying the remains of a Navy veteran punishment! "He told you that?" she asked the woman to insure she received all possible information to use against Gibbs when she went to kill him.

Mrs. Wayne went on to compare this case to when her husband was under a female ship captain, but Jenny kept her attention focused on all the possible ways she could kill Gibbs and get away with it. It was a shame Abby was so attached to Gibbs, otherwise Jenny would enlist her assistance at avoiding leaving forensic evidence behind.

"Special Agent Gibbs, I didn't know the new Director was punishing you," Jenny said when they reached Gibbs, in a tone she knew would tell him if she wasn't punishing him before, she certainly would be now. "She always seemed very fair to me," she attempted to defend. Mrs. Wayne didn't know Jenny was Director, so she hoped perhaps a second opinion might change the woman's opinion of her. McGee, Ziva, and Tony slowly started to back away, but Jenny was certainly not going to let them off easy. "How about you? What do you think?" she asked them. "Do you think the new Director is reasonable?"

McGee and Tony shared a nervous look, but Ziva spared them having to answer, saying, "Very."

Nodding her thanks, she signaled that they could all leave, before turning back to hear that Mrs. Wayne needed her husband's returned sooner than expected. "You'll have your husband's ashes," Jenny assured her, hoping to make up for Jethro's story. "Won't see, Agent Gibbs?" she ordered, her eyes telling him, they were going to discuss this later.

"If you say so," he confirmed, not so much as to having the ashes returned on time but to her silent order. Oh yes, this time Gibbs was dead and he most certainly knew it.

Of course, she knew Gibbs wouldn't be coming to her office anytime soon for their little heart-to-heart, so she decided to get through some of her own work assuming Gibbs would have things under control. Her phone rang, echoing off the wall, before she had much time to get anything done. It was no wonder she was always bringing work home. "Director Shepard," she answered, hoping it was her contacts getting back to her with information on Epsilon Incorporated.

"Jennifer," her mother's disapproving voice rang through the phone, bringing Jenny's mood crashing down.

"Mom…" she greeted, before her nerves started to kick into high gear. "Is Emily okay?" God, Jenny knew she shouldn't have left the girl alone with her grandmother.

"Emily is fine. However, she did just inform me that you two will be going out this evening."

"Mother…you are not seriously calling me at work about this?" Jenny exclaimed in disbelief. Oh, who was she kidding? Of course, she was. This was her mother, after all!

"Jennifer, I did not come all the way across the country to sit at your house while you take my granddaughter out."

"Well, that is why you should call and ask when a good time for you to visit is. This is Emily's school vacation week, so, of course, we have premade plans. Can I you put Emily for a minute?" Jenny asked. She needed to make sure Emily truly was okay and not absolutely miserable from spending all day with her grandmother.

"No, Jennifer. We need to…" her mother started to complain, but Jenny was tired of her mother's games and condescending opinion of how Jenny was a terrible person and an even worse mother.

"I want to talk to my daughter now, mother!"

"Fine," she grumbled, but said nothing more.

The line was silent for a long while and Jenny was starting to worry that her mother hung up on her. But finally her favorite voice piped up on the line. "Hi, Mommy!"  
Hearing that Emily was still her usual cheerful self, some of Jenny's worry washed away. Still, when she had talked to Emily last night, she had been about as comfortable spending the day with her grandmother as Jenny had been leaving her to spend the day with her grandmother. "Hey, Baby girl. How are you doing?"

"Okay. Grandma took me to lunch at Palena's." Wow…Emily's favorite restaurant. Her mother had barely taken any interest in Emily for six years and suddenly she was splurging to take the girl to Palena's? Yes, her mother was most definitely up to something.

But it was better she keep that knowledge to herself, so instead she responded, "That was nice of her. Did you say thank you?" she asked, knowing that of course the girl would have. Emily was nothing if not polite.

"Yes, mommy," she said before going quiet. "Mommy?" she asked after a short while.

"What is it, Baby?"

"When are you coming home?" Jenny's heart sank hearing the hopeful tone of her daughter. God, how she wished she could tell her she was packing up and on her way. However, glancing at the clock, she saw that she needed to stay a few more hours if she ever wanted to have time to go out bowling with Emily and Ziva.

"I'll be home in a couple hours, sweetheart. Then we will go out with Aunt Ziva," Jenny promised.

"Okay, Mommy," the girl sighed, trying to hide her disappointment that her mother wasn't coming home yet. Jenny didn't miss the sadness in Emily's voice and it broke her heart even more.

Before Jenny had the chance to figure out if she might be able to take her remaining work home so she could be with Emily, her other line rang and she recognized it as an actual work related call. Hopefully it was the information Jenny promised to get Ziva. Sighing, Jenny had to tell the girl, "Mommy has another call, Baby girl. But I promise I'll be home as soon as I can and then we can meet Aunt Ziva for dinner and bowling."

And it turned out that she'd been right this time and this phone call was finally her contact getting back with who the executives of Epsilon's Incorporated was. Only when she opened the email he sent her with all the information, she hadn't expected to see a very familiar name listed. Quickly printing everything out, she shoved it all into a file folder and hurried off to find Ziva.

She finally found out from McGee that Ziva and Tony were down with Abby and she couldn't help but smile when she found all three debating over whether they would want to be cremated or buried after they die. Naturally, when it came time for Tony to decide, he, of course, picked neither. "The Ted Williams. Cryogenics," she heard him say was his alternative.

Jenny had to chuckle at how well that option fit with their case of only having their victim's head. Taking that as a means to enter, she walked into the lab, saying, "Appropriate under the circumstances, Agent DiNozzo. The only thing Ted Williams had frozen was his head."

Laughing at Tony's nervous gulp and quick reach to her head, Jenny turned her attention to Ziva who was looking at her expectantly. "Here's the information you were looking for," she said, passing the folder to Ziva. "The principal and sole shareholder of Epsilon Corporation."

Glancing over the file, Ziva's eyes lit up as she announced excitedly, "Sean Oliver. Now I really do hate lawyers. Thank you, Director."

"Glad I could be of help," Jenny added, sincerely. She got bored of the politics of being Director quite easily and doing these little favors for Ziva were quite refreshing at times.

Tony glanced back and forth between her and Ziva curiously for a few minutes before Jenny finally asked, "Is something wrong?"

"Oh, I was just wondering if Gibbs knows who Ziva's secret contact is."

Tony did have a point, but Jenny felt she could rest assure Gibbs didn't know. If he did, she knew he wouldn't hesitate to call her out on it. "We had a saying back in Europe: 'Whatever Gibbs doesn't know…"

"Can't hurt him," Tony tried to finish for her, getting the last part wrong.

"No. Can't hurt us," she corrected, laughing as she remembered the time Decker and Pacci came up with that little catch phrase. Nodding to Ziva, signaling she would see her later on, Jenny bid her goodbyes to everyone and went upstairs to get some work done before going home.

[][][][][][]

Of course, her week naturally had to progressively not so great to absolutely terrible, but that was to be expected with her mother still staying with them. Then Gibbs had to get a high profile case involving a family who happened to be close personal friends with SecNav. In order to insure things ran smoothly, Jenny kept trying to oversee that Jethro wasn't causing trouble, but that only led to Jethro getting on her case for looking over his shoulder.

So, with Emily staying over Ziva's for a sleepover, to avoid stepping on Jethro's toes and mostly avoid going home to her mother, Jenny hid away in her office till late in the night. She was going through her email, when her office door slammed open. Knowing Jethro was the only one who never knocked and was more than likely the only other person still here at this hour, Jenny didn't even bother to look up. That is until, she noticed him striding not towards her desk but to the couch and table in the back corner of her office.

Watching curiously as he tossed everything off the table and started unpacking a large bag, Jenny wondered what on Earth she'd done to get him to buy her dinner. And not only that, but also be willing to eat with her! "I don't recall ordering room service," she joked, feeling the stress from her week slowly starting to dissipate. He didn't answer her, instead continued to unpack all the food, so she decided to walk over and see what he brought. "Is that steak au poivre?" she asked excitedly. She couldn't believe he remembered her favorite food! "And frisee salad?" she sighed longingly, kicking off her heels.

When he continued to ignore her, she reminded him, "You know the last time we had steak au poivre, six people died." He still didn't say anything and she couldn't believe that he was passing on an opportunity to comment on that dinner they spent undercover Marseille that resulted in a fire fight in the middle of the restaurant. It used to be his favorite pastime. Fine, if he wasn't here to socialize then she might as well ask, "What is this mean gonna cost me?"

"Can't a guy just sit down and have a bite with his old partner?" he asked, finally speaking.

"Old partner?" she laughed, not believing after everything they'd been through, he was going to call them that! "Must be worse than I thought." As usual, he ignored all her attempts to have a civilized, personal conversation about something, _anything_, that didn't involve work. Accepting that 'old partners' was the best she was going to get, she asked, "How'd it go with Danforth at the hospital today?"

"It went okay, if you're Corporal Merrill. Danforth gave an alibi for the day of the explosion."

"I assume you don't believe him," she commented, based on the aggravated tone in his voice.

"Why is that?" he asked curiously, as if she hadn't learned how to read him years ago.

"Because I wouldn't be eating steak au poivre right now if you did," she pointed out. Dinner with his old partner her ass! Knowing his silence was his way of asking for her opinion on the case, she said, "If Danforth's covering for Merrill, he has to believe Merrill didn't kill his son. And the only way he can know that for sure is…"

"The kid is still alive," he finished for her.

"But you don't believe that either," she pointed out.

"The alibi was B.S. But the grief was real," he assured her, but Jenny wasn't quite sure she agreed with that sentiment.

"You sure Danforth wasn't playing you?" she asked, even though she knew he would probably eat her alive for suggesting such a thing. And judging by his aggravated scoff at her accusation, he certainly wanted to, so she apologized, "Sorry. That still doesn't mean the son's dead. There was an accident. He could be hurt."

"Could be recovering in a private hospital somewhere," he agreed.

"Wouldn't be the first time a parent with means used them to keep a child out of trouble," she finished, before asking, "You going to eat that aspara…"

"Hey," he objected, batting her fork away with his own. Picking up his plate, he pushed his asparagus on to her plate, causing her to smile happily.

"Thank you," she said gratefully. "There is another possibility. If Danforth is grieving for his son, then he's only covering for Merrill because…"

"He refuses to believe that Merrill attempted to kill him," he said, finishing her sentence. Old partners be damned. They hadn't lost their touch!

"Let's hope he's not wrong. Either way, however it went down, Jethro, you find Merrill, and you'll find Danforth Jr." she said, smirking at him. She still couldn't believe he had actually wanted her opinion.

They ate a little while longer in a comfortable silence, before she laid back in her chair sighing. "What's up with you?" he asked her.

"What do you mean?"

"All week you've looked stressed," he pointed out.

"You really know how to flatter a girl," she laughed.

"Seriously, Jen. What's up?"

Sighing, she decided it best to just give in and tell him. After all, Jethro was probably the one person who would understand her pain. "My mother's in town."

His fork slipped out of his hand as his response and he started at her, trying to determine if she was kidding or not. "Should I be afraid for my life?" he asked, gaining a laugh out of her.

"I think I'm the one that should be worried about her digging my grave. Apparently, I should be married and staying home to clean the house and cook dinner for my husband instead of having a career."

"God that _woman_!" he whispered, shaking off his own horrible memories of the time he met her mother. Jethro had the unfortunate event of staying over Jenny's place one night when her mother decided to make one of her 'surprise' visits. Jenny nearly fainted when she told Jethro to go answer the door and he'd brought her mother into the kitchen. Her mother had not been pleased with the romantic atmosphere Jenny had transformed her house into. Even though at the time their relationship had been purely sex at that point, it didn't mean they couldn't enjoy a nice dinner too. Her mother hadn't agreed, however, and she certainly didn't take well to Jethro at all – which only encouraged Jenny to purse things with Jethro that much further. "What is she doing here this time?"

"Her cover is that she's here for…my birthday," Jenny said only half lying. Her mother was here for a birthday, just not Jenny's.

"But your birthday isn't even in February."

"I know. I am starting to believe that I have to be adopted," she joked and was rewarded with Jethro's laughter. God it was a long time since she'd heard him actually laugh, since they'd even had a conversation that didn't involve an argument. It felt like old times.

"Jen, I have never thought for one minute that you could possibly be related to that woman. The first time I met her I thought she had to be someone you hired just to mess with me."

"Jethro…that is quite possibly the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me," she laughed, glad that he didn't believe her to be a cold hearted woman with no respect for other people.

"So you still haven't figured out why she's really visiting?" he asked and Jenny was surprised to hear concern in his voice.

"Not yet," Jenny sighed. "But I plan to tonight."

"You're sure I don't need to skip town," he asked, leery to believe that her mother was not planning to hunt him down.

"I think you're safe," she chuckled before falling into an uncomfortable silent.

Sensing her discomfort, Jethro glanced at her concerned. "What is it, Jen?"

"Fine," he grumbled, packing up their leftovers. "If you won't tell me, I'll just get out of your hair.

Her inward debate on whether to open the can of worms when their evening had been going so well or to just leave all well and good alone went on till he had everything all packed up and his hand was resting on the door handle. Deciding she might as well go for it, she said, "She didn't hate you personally, Jethro." She trailed off for a moment before taking a deep breath and softly admitting, "She hated how happy you made me…how happy you still _make_ me feel."

He froze and she saw his shoulders tense up for a second, before he turned around slowly. They stared at one another longingly for a few moments before he all but whispered, "Good to know, Jen," and was out the door without another word.

Of course, her relaxing evening thanks to Gibbs couldn't last forever. The second she entered the house she could literally feel the tension rise up and fill the entire house. Dropping her bag next to the stairs, Jenny found her mother in the study helping herself to Jenny's liquor cabinet. "You really should get some variety, Jennifer. Most of this is Bourbon. What on Earth do you do when you have guests? No one likes that stuff."

Ignoring her mother's comment, Jenny decided to get down to business. Ziva would be bringing Emily home tomorrow morning, so she had a limited opportunity to crack her mother. "What are you doing here, Mom? And don't tell me it's for Emily's birthday because by now I know better."

Her mother took a large gulp on scotch before slamming the glass down on Jenny's desk. "Fine, Jennifer. You want to know why I'm here? I'm here because Emily needs to be in a stable home. Something of which I can provide out in L.A."

What? She couldn't seriously be saying what Jenny thought she was saying! "You want to take Emily to live with you? You, who have barely seen the girl on more than three occasions in her entire life?"

"She should be raised in a good Christian home. You don't want her to grow up to be like…"

"Like me?" Jenny finished, growing more and more pissed off by the second.

"Well, you're not exactly the greatest role model. Never married, with a child of a man who doesn't even know he had a child."

"Oh do NOT go there. You have no idea what happened between Jethro and I. And why is that? Because you didn't even bother to ask!"

Completely ignoring Jenny, her mother continued on with her own argument as if Jenny hadn't even spoken. "Not to mention, you're always working and when you're not Emily spends all her time with you and that Israeli woman. She doesn't have any friends."

God, Jenny had just about had enough of this and of her mother being here. There was a reason they lived on opposite ends of the country! "Honestly, mother, you are so far off base. Am I a single mother that has to work for a living to provide for her daughter, yes? But that does not make me an unfit mother. Besides, Emily is one of the happiest children I've ever seen. She is super smart for her age and attends one of the top schools in the D.C. area. For the record, she has several friends in her class, but she enjoys spending time with Ziva – who, by the way, is Jewish and very serious about it. She wears a necklace of the Star of David and would die before taking that off. Now, I suggest you wrap up your visit because I would rather be dead than give up custody of my daughter."

Without another word, her mother stormed out of the room, hopefully to go upstairs and pack. Jenny started to pour herself a large portion of Bourbon before stopping and opting to grab her jacket instead. Grabbing her car keys, she decided to go spend some time with at Ziva's because there was no one in the world she wanted to be with tonight than her beautiful daughter. There was only one other thing she knew for certain and that was she needed to find someone to look after Emily if anything happened to her because there was no way in hell she would trust her mother to do so.

_A/N: I don't know for sure her mother's alive but some of the websites said she had a mother in L.A. so I thought making them estranged would explain why she's never mentioned in the show. _


	9. Love Always, Your Marine

Chapter Nine: Love Always, Your Marine

_Authors Note: Sorry it's been a while! I'll try to be better! The SecNav in this chapter is the original SecNav because we've seen more of him and I can better do his character and I think I'm going to include some of the port-to-port storyline in this later on which is why I also included the future season 9+ SecNav Clay Jarvis at the end. Thanks for reading and all your reviews! You're the best!_

**Present Day**

Summer…Ziva David loved summer. Everyone at NCIS always seemed to be in a good mood during the summer and spirits always seemed brighter to her. Tony certainly always seemed to be in his glory whenever summer came around. As long as the air-conditioning was working, of course. Even McGee seemed to enjoy this time of year or perhaps that had more to do with the picnics in the park Abby always suggested for their lunch hour during the good weather. Still, Ziva found it to be an enjoyable time all around.

Carrying her plant back to her desk after getting it some water in the bathroom, she observed McGee smiling away as he more than likely played unauthorized games on his computer while Gibbs was out. Just as she returned her plant to its proper place at the corner of her desk, Tony came strutting in wearing his aviator sunglasses and she was thrilled to see he didn't just have hers and McGee's lunch but also got her Berry Mango Smoothie. That was another thing about summer…Tony _willing_ offered to be the one to pick up lunch.

Her theory that people were generally happier during the summer season was shattered, however, when Gibbs returned from lunch with a scowl on his face. She watched him toss his car keys on his desk, roughly place gun in his desk drawer before slamming the drawer shut hard causing Ziva to jump. What Ziva didn't understand was what had gotten into him today. Since Emily moved in, he'd been happier than she'd ever seen him and, as he always did for his lunch break when there was no case, he'd run home to spend some time with her. She couldn't possibly understand how that would put him in a _bad_ mood.

"Uh…Boss?" Tony finally plucked up the courage to break the unnerving silence, as confused as Ziva was.

"She's dating Carson," he growled and Ziva had to work hard to not burst out laughing at his aggravation that his daughter now had her first boyfriend.

"Gibbs, you must have seen this coming. She and Carson have basically spent every day together since that first day they reunited," Ziva pointed out. Frankly, she was surprised it had taken them nearly a month to get to this point.

"She's not supposed to date until she's fifty, married, and I'm dead."

"Do you not think you are overreacting a little, Gibbs?"

"She's dating a mini-_DiNozzo_!" he exclaimed.

"If I wasn't currently plotting all the possible ways we can dispose of Carson if he ever breaks her heart, I might take offence to that, Boss," Tony objected.

"DiNozzo, think about what you were like at sixteen."

"Oh that is something I do not want to think about," Ziva laughed, as she watched Tony's eyes widen in horror.

"Don't worry, Boss. McGee and I will have a little talk with the boy," Tony said, cracking his knuckles for show.

"Count on us, Boss," McGee agreed, already grabbing his keys.

"He and I are going to have our own little talk, but you boys can feel free to drive the point home."

"Oh, please," Ziva objected. "As if she is stupid enough to allow the three of you anywhere near her boyfriend. I guarantee she already has security measures in place to prevent exactly that."

"Who's got a boyfriend?" Abby's voice piped up, as she came skipping into the bullpen with a rather large package.

"Emma is finally officially dating Carson," Ziva informed her excitedly.

"Oh my God!" Abby squeaked jumping up and down. "This is so exciting, isn't it…" she screamed, trailing off when she noticed the stares being thrown her way by Tony, McGee, and most especially Gibbs. Rolling her eyes, she reassured, "Don't worry, El Jefe. I am prepared to insure none of you leave forensic evidence behind if it comes down to that."

"Good," Gibbs grumbled.

"But still…they are just sooooo cute together! Oh I just can't wait till they go to prom next year! They are going to be so adorable all dressed up with the corsages and the…."

"Whoa….hold up," Tony objected.

"No way am I going to let them go out for a whole year," Gibbs filled in.

"Or go to prom!" McGee added.

"I mean do you know what I had on my mind when I went to prom and after I dated a girl for a year!" Tony said and Ziva could tell that was not helping Gibbs.

"Relax, Gibbs. Tony is exaggerating. I mean it is not as if he actually lasted an entire year with a girl," Ziva laughed.

"Hey!" Tony cried, but everyone else was too busy laughing. Still, Ziva could tell Emily was seriously going to have to keep Carson away from these guys if she valued her boyfriend's life.

[][][][][][]

His daughter was dating. He'd only known he had a daughter for a few months and now she had a boyfriend. Next thing he knew she'd be in college, getting married, and he'd be a grandfather. No…this could not be happening! She was sixteen! She wasn't supposed to be dating till she was in her thirties…at the earliest!

And worst of all Ziva and Abby were acting as if this were the greatest thing in the entire world. His daughter dating was NOT a great thing! It was a nightmare! He already constantly worried about where she was all the time but now he was going to need consider going with Kate's plan for if she had ever had kids. Video surveillance and GPS tracking in their clothes.

Luckily DiNozzo and McGee agreed with him, however they were not helping with their discussion on how the only thing DiNozzo ever had on his mind at sixteen was sex. That was the last thing Gibbs needed to hear, considering Carson was basically a mini DiNozzo!

"Did you need something, Abs?" Gibbs asked, trying to draw his attention away from the fact that his daughter was dating.

"Oh!" her eyes lit up as she remembered why she came up here. "This package is for you, Gibbs. The mailroom accidently delivered it to me," she said passing the package to him.

"It's from Emily?" he mused curiously, recognizing her handwriting on the label. While he couldn't figure out why she was sending him something at the office, at least he knew it was safe to open. Unless she wanted to get rid of him so he wouldn't kill Carson…

Pulling out his knife, he sliced open the box, wondering what on Earth she didn't feel she could give him in person. Carefully folding back all the bubble wrap, Gibbs pulled out a twofold wooden display case. On the left was a photograph of him in his marine sniper unit and on the right were all the medals he was awarded. He stared at the case for a long while before he noticed a forgotten card still in the box.

"What'd she get ya, Boss?" Tony asked, but Gibbs ignored him. Instead he pulled the card out of its envelope and opened it.

_Dad,_

_ They wouldn't want you to forget._

_Semper Fi_

He wished he had taken the package to a more private location because he was having a hard time blinking back the few tears that threatened to fall. This was a bold move…so much so that he doubted even Jen would have had the courage. It took guts he didn't know a sixteen year old could have, let along his own sixteen year old. Frankly no one he'd known thus far would ever have dared and the fact that she cared so much as to take this risk made him realize just how lucky he was.

"It's not your birthday, is it, Boss?" McGee questioned, hoping he hadn't forgotten or lost track of time.

"No. My old unit's having a reunion. Emily was going through the mail and opened the invitation. She's trying to convince me to go," he explained.

"You let her open your mail, Boss? I thought you had a thing about that," Tony asked, surprised. True, Gibbs hated when others went through his mail, but he hadn't had much say in the matter. By the time he got home, she already opened it all.

"Yea, well, I guess she used to the bills for Mike with his retirement checks so she has a bad habit of opening all the mail," he told him nonchalantly, still staring at the words she wrote to him. _They wouldn't want you to forget._ He got these invitations ever year, but he never went. Never even bothered to open the envelope. All it ever did was remind him of how he failed Shannon and Kelly.

But was Emily right? The Marines used to be such a huge part of his life. Would they want him to remember that, even though it meant he wasn't there for them in the end? In his heart he knew both his girls wouldn't want him to blame himself for their deaths. If Shannon were still here, she'd probably make a rule about it in her little code to live by. And Kelly? While she never liked when he went overseas, she was always proud her father was a Marine.

"DiNozzo?" he called across the bullpen.

"Yea, Boss?"

"How close are you with Valentino?"

"Close enough to get reservations whenever I want."

"Good. I need you to get me a table for tonight."

"On it, Boss," Tony said, picking up the phone.

With one last proud look at his gift, he stationed it in the corner of his desk. Digging out his wallet, he pulled out his credit card and handed it to Ziva. "Ziva, I'm going to need yours and Abby's help. Could you guys take Emily out to buy a new dress? I'll fill you in on the rest of the details later," he instructed, before heading out to put together the rest of his surprise plans for the evening, leaving Abby and Ziva giggling about getting another shopping trip with his credit card.

[][][][][][]

She'd known him forever, but had only ever been to his office once before when her mother had a meeting and no babysitter. She knew shouldn't have come. Her father would probably kill her if he ever found out she was here, let alone what she was here for. But she figured he was already pissed she was dating Carson and was probably even more so if he got the package she sent him, so she figured what the hell. Chances were he'd never find out and she'd get the information she needed.

"Ms. Shepard?" the secretary called from her desk.

"Yes?"

"SecNav will see you now."

"Great," Emily said, practically jumping out of her seat. It'd been a long time since she'd seen him, probably since the last time she and her mother had dinner with his family, so she was anxious for the reunion, as well as some answers. Calming herself down at the secretary's intense glare, she politely said, "Thank you," before hurrying into his office.

He stood up from his chair when she entered, looking her over carefully before breaking out into a smile. "Emily, my dear, it has been far too long. Look at the beautiful young woman you're becoming," he complimented, making her blush. Most commented on how much like her mother she looked and she was grateful he opted not to do so. She was reminded of that fact every time she looked in the mirror and, while she wouldn't change it for the world, it got tiring having everyone pointing it out to her.

"Thank you, sir."

"I see you're still as polite as ever despite what I'm sure must have been good old Mike's best efforts to turn you. Please have a seat, my dear," he said, gesturing to the chairs in front of his desk. "Now, I take it you are back you're back in D.C. for more than just a vacation."

"What gives you that impression?" she asked curiously.

"Because you wouldn't be here in my office if this was just any old friendly visit."

"Good point. You're right. I'm living with my father…Agent Gibbs." He never knew who her father was and she'd debated over whether she should tell him or not. But now that everyone at NCIS knew the truth, it would not be long before SecNav knew as well and she thought it best if she were the one to tell him.

He was quiet for a while and she feared that perhaps she should not have said anything. Eventually he sighed, apparently coming to terms with the fact that the former Director of NCIS had a child with one of her senior agents. Granted she wasn't Director at the time of the affair, but her parents had been partners at the time which was quite possibly just as inappropriate. "I always suspected he was your father. Her pregnancy lined up too perfectly with their mission in Paris to be coincidental."

"Rule Thirty Nine," she agreed, before realizing he wouldn't have a clue what she was talking about. "My father has a list of fifty one rules. Thirty Nine is that there is no such thing as a coincidence."

"He's a smart man. How are you holding up?" he asked, his voice full of regret. She suspected that he, like everyone else, felt responsible for her mother's death and therefore her growing up without a mother.

"Most days I'm doing all right. There are times when I wish she was here. Like my softball games…Mom always loved to watch me play. But it has been seven years and I'm starting to accept that she's gone," she admitted. Perhaps if everyone believed she was doing okay and moving on, it might alleviate some of the guilt they'd been carrying around with them.

"That's good, my dear. I know it's a very difficult thing to do, especially at such a young age, but I assure you moving on is a good thing," he told her, sincerely. "Now, what can I do for you, my dear?"

"I need information," she said simply.

"On…" he probed.

"Lyon Vance."

He leaned back in his seat, trying to massage the stress off his face. "I always knew you would come here one day with questions. Why wasn't your mother's protection detail with her? Why Agents David and DiNozzo lost track of her? Why was she targeted? Why her murder was covered up? But I did not expect you to come here asking about her replacement."

"I think we both know he should never have been her replacement."

"I agree, but sometimes things happen that are out of our control."

"You are the Secretary of the Navy. You appoint the Director of NCIS," Emily pointed out.

"I'm sure that many people have told you this, but I can assure you that NCIS has not been the same without your mother. While there were times when she managed to get herself into some pretty big messes, she certainly knew how to clean them up. I don't recall in her short time as Director, ever having to make a personal visit to NCIS headquarters. That has not been the case with the current administration."

"So why did you appoint the current administration?"

"You know I do believe I owe you a birthday present from back in January." She couldn't believe he was changing the subject! He'd never failed to provide her with information in the past…even if it was information she probably shouldn't have.

"You don't have to do that, sir," she started to say, trying to direct him back to the topic at hand, but he wasn't having any of it.

"Nonsense, my dear. It is the least I can do," he said more clearly and suddenly she understood what he was trying to tell her. He wanted her to read between the lines and she had a feeling she was going to like this gift.

"I appreciate the gesture, sir," she said, indicating she understood his hidden message.

"I assure you it will be exactly what you want, as always."

"Thank you, sir," she said as her cell phone vibrated. "Sorry, just a second." She glance at the text message curiously wondering what it could be about. "It's Ziva. She wants me to meet her at home. Looks like I have to go."

"Ah, mustn't keep Agent David waiting," he laughed, before his eyes lit up remembering something. "Oh…I almost forgot. I've have something for you," he said, opening one of his desk drawers. "You're mother didn't have many personal belongings with her in Los Angeles and most of what she did have, Agent Gibbs took, but I did manage to snag one item. I believe your mother would want you to have this," he explained, passing something to her.

Taking it from him, she saw that it was her mother's NCIS badge. Running her thumb across it in awe, she said, "Thank you, sir," not really knowing what else to say. She'd seen her mother wear this nearly every day. To be holding it now made everything seem so final like she was truly never coming back, never going to wear this badge again.

"Well, you shouldn't keep Agent David waiting," he said, oblivious to the surreal moment she was living in her own head. Silently she stood and headed for the door, before he called. "Say hello to your father for me…that is…if he even knows you are here."

She stopped with her hand on the handle, turning around slightly with a sly smile on her face. "I think you may want to offer my father you're regards personally."

"Ah, you are your mother's daughter," he laughed.

"Always," she assured him with certainty. "It was good to see you again."

"Always a pleasure, Emily."

When she finally made it home, she found Ziva and Abby anxiously waiting for her, so much so that Abby practically jumped off the couch the moment she got through the door. "There you are! We've been waiting _forever_!"

"Abby, we have hardly been here that long," Ziva corrected, more than luckily picking up the rather solemn mood Emily was in. Ziva glanced at her questionably, but Emily shook off her aunts probing gaze trying to tell her she would be just fine with a little time.

Completely oblivious to Ziva's correction and the silent conversation going on in front of her Abby continued on excitedly, "We have your father's credit card again and instructions to buy some new dresses!"

"What do I need a new dress for?" Emily questioned confused. Shopping wasn't exactly what she hoped to be doing today, but perhaps spending some time with Abby and Ziva would take her mind off the badge in her hand.

"We don't know yet," Abby told her, but she could tell Abby was lying.

Opting to let the lie slide in the hopes Ziva would stop looking at her like she knew something was wrong, Emily put on a bright smile and said, "Well, what are we waiting for?"

Abby let out a squeal in agreement and the two of them started to head for the door when Ziva stopped them. "Wait…where were you before?"

"I…uh…was…" Emily stuttered, trying to come up with a reasonable lie while inconspicuously sliding the badge into her back pocket.

"If you were with Carson, you can tell us. We're so excited for you two!" Abby told her with a bright smile.

At the mention of Carson, Emily smiled a genuine smile, blushing ever so slightly. God he was amazing and she still couldn't believe he'd been single, let alone asked her out. "Thanks Abby! I'm really excited too. He's taking me out Saturday!"

"Ah! Ziva and I will have to come over and help you get ready!"

"She may be better off coming over to get ready at your place, Abby," Ziva suggested and Emily had to laugh. Obviously her father's ranting about her needing to be thirty and married before she could date had continued on throughout the work day.

Most girls would find it utterly annoying, and a part of her definitely did, but considering she'd spent her entire life without her father and the better part of the past seven years without her mother, it was nice to have an overprotective father. It made up a little bit for not having her mother around for this rather momentous part of her life. She would give anything to have her mother around for all the joys and hardships of her first relationship, to give her all the corny advice a mother is supposed to give her daughter, to fight over whether or not she was moving too fast, and to be the buffer that reprimanded her father whenever he got too protective.

But standing here with Abby and Ziva all excited for her and ready to help her with all the drama of first love made her realize how incredibly lucky she was. She knew they were trying to do their best to help out with all the things Jenny would ordinarily be the one doing and all the things Gibbs couldn't, all while trying to avoid overstepping that invisible line.

And help they did…by throwing dress after dress after dress at her. She still didn't have a clue where they were going. Abby and Ziva were doing an excellent job of deflecting her questions, but wherever they were going had to be pretty fancy because they were both certainly not holding back in the style of dresses they were trying on, as well as the ones they kept putting in her dressing room.

She fell in love with a forest green silk dress. Twirling around to admire it at all angles before showing it to the girls, she accidentally knocked her jeans off the seat. She quickly gathered them up before heading out to show Abby and Ziva her dress. When she came out, Abby was waiting for her spotting a blood red halter that would definitely drive McGee and probably even Tony crazy. "Wow, Abby. You look great!"

"Why thank you," she said, turning around to see what Emily tried on. "Oh Emily! You have got to buy that dress. It looks like it was made for you!" Abby cried, eyes lighting up. "Ziva, hurry up. You have got to see this dress on Emily!"

Ziva's dressing room door opened, but when she exited, her attention was directed completely on something in her hand than admiring either Abby's or Emily's dress. "Ziva?" Abby questioned.

"Emma, what is this?" Ziva asked, holding up the item in her hand.

Emily's eyes widened as she saw that Ziva was holding her mother's badge that she'd hidden in her pocket. It must have fallen out, when her jeans fell. She desperately wanted to do the whole it's nothing while trying to steal it from Ziva's hand thing, but rationally she knew Ziva already knew exactly what it was and there would be no getting around it. "It's my mother's NCIS badge."

"I know that. What I was asking is how did you get it? I thought SecNav took it."

"Uh…" While Emily tried to come up with some sort of explanation, she watched Abby move over to inspect the badge before turning back towards her expectantly. Seeing no way around this, she decided it would be best to just put it out into the open and hope they didn't tell her father. "Okay…I went to see him today and he gave me that. Said he thought my mother would want me to have it."

"Emily Shepard!" Ziva cried, causing Emily to gulp. Ziva never called her Emily unless she was really upset and she couldn't even recall the last time Ziva had ever addressed her by both her first and last name. Glancing over at Abby, she could see that the Goth was not looking happy either. This was not a good sign. "I thought you were going to stop this hunt for information on La Grenouille and your mother. Whatever it is, she obviously wanted to keep it buried for a reason. Not to mention, I doubt your father would be very pleased."

She bit her lip nervously, trying to come up with some sort of explanation. It was then she realized she had an out. It was wrong and devious, but it wasn't a lie. "I wasn't visiting SecNav to get information about my mom."

She watched Ziva and Abby gaze at her thoroughly and saw nothing. So there they had it…no eye twitch. "What do you think Abby?"

"Well…her eye didn't twitch so maybe it was just a friendly visit," Abby shrugged and Emily could see Abby just wanted to move on with their shopping trip.

"In that case…you should really buy that dress, Emma. You look stunning. As do you, Abby."

And just like that, everything was back to normal and it was like nothing happened. They took their dresses back home and Emily was surprised to see her father still wasn't home. Though trying to get information on where they were going out of Abby and Ziva while they were all getting ready proved to be impossible. Whatever her father had promised them for keeping their lips sealed must be good.

While Abby phoned Gibbs, Ziva dragged her upstairs to keep her from over hearing. After they changed into their dresses, Ziva sat Emily down in front of the mirror so she could brush through her hair. Ziva twisted Emily's long red hair up into a nice updo, grabbing a rhinestone clip to hold everything in place. "You look gorgeous. I know your mother would be so proud of you, Emma and that she would do anything to be here right now."

She didn't say anything, but Emily smiled more to herself than Ziva. Her hand instantly flew to the locket around her neck. Her mother had given it to her on her seventh birthday and she hadn't taken it off since.

"McGee's ready for us downstairs," Abby said, poking her head into the room. Ziva shared a glance with Abby before the two broke out into wide smiles, each taking her by the hand and excitedly dragging her downstairs and outside where she literally froze in place at the sight of McGee holding the door open to a _limo_!

"Oh my God!" Emily cried stunned which only caused Abby and Ziva to get even more excited.

"After you, ladies," McGee said, gesturing inside the limo. The three slid inside followed by McGee and Emily was disappointed to see neither her father nor Tony were inside.

"Where's my Dad?"

"You'll see," Abby informed her, slyly.

"He did however leave you this," McGee said handing her an envelope.

She opened it up to find a card, similar to the one she left with his present, only hers said:

_You were right._

_ Love Always,_

_ Your Marine_

She stared at the note. Did this mean he wasn't mad? Before she knew it the limo was coming to a stop and McGee got out to hold the door. Abby and Ziva slid out first and she followed shortly after. Her jaw dropped at the sight awaiting her and she could barely believe her eyes. There was her father dressed to the T in his Marine Corps dress uniform.

[][][][][][]

He couldn't remember the last time he'd been as nervous as he was when the limo pulled up in front of Valentino's. He fidgeted inconspicuously with his uniform as he waited for the door to open. He couldn't believe he still fit into it. Granted he could barely breathe in it, but he managed to squeeze in. He was going to have to start working out everyday instead of every other day.

His eyes widened when he saw her step out of the limo in a stunning forest green dress so much so that he vowed to never _ever _let her out of the house with a boy looking like that. She was as gorgeous as her mother.

He had to chuckle though, when she finally caught his gaze and her jaw quite literally dropped. "Dad?"

"Hey there, stranger."

"What is all this?"

"A thank you… for reminding me of who I am." He pulled her into tight hug, holding her close. "And for reminding me of what I have right in front of me," he added, kissing the top of her head.

He felt her arms wrap securely around him and he allowed him a moment to lose himself in the fact that the wish he asked for every Christmas was finally coming true. And while it wasn't in the way he ever imagined, while it wasn't Kelly, he was finally able to hug his daughter. Finally able to have that second chance at fatherhood.

But more than that, he was finally starting to understand why Jenny did what she did. He now realized he needed to get to this moment where it was just him and Emily and no ghosts from his pasts tagging along for the ride. Kelly would always be an amazing part of his life, but Emily was in the here and now and she was pretty damn amazing herself.

A tiny yelp drew their attention away from their father-daughter moment and he turned to see Tony standing there with Gibbs' gift for Emily looking rather sheepish for interrupting. He heard Emily gasp and had to let out a good laugh. From what he heard from those who knew her best, it was hard to surprise his daughter even slightly, but he seemed to be doing a pretty decent job of it tonight. And this was the icing on the cake.

His gaze followed the leash in Tony's hands down to the source of the yelp and Emily's excitement was the puppy he and DiNozzo picked out several weeks ago. "He's a Seeing Eye Dog in training, hence the yellow cape and the fact that we can take him into the restaurant. I don't know if you know how it all works…" he started to explain, unsure, now that he'd seen her with the puppy that she'd be happy giving him up when he was done his training in a year. But Abby told him how much Emily enjoyed helping her train Mortimer and he figured with her going to college in a year, this would be a good route to try. If he didn't pass his training, they could always adopt him, the woman in charge had told him.

"I remember Mortimer, the dog Abby trained a few years ago. So he's ours to train?"

"Yea, he is."

"AH! Dad, you are the best!" she cried, giving him a quick hug before kneeling down to pet her new puppy.

"We kind of already had to name him though," Tony pointed out. "We all agreed on calling him Shepard, so hopefully that's okay with you." When she started giggling, he objected, "Hey! What's so funny about calling him Shepard? I thought it was a good name for a dog."

"Relax, Tony. I love it. I was only laughing because Shepard is the nickname Carson gave me when we were kids."

"Oh…when I said that it was a good name for a dog, I didn't mean that you are like a dog or…OW! Boss!" he cried, when he felt a slap to the back of the head.

"Actually, that was me," Emily admitted, matter-of-factly, taking Shepard's leash from Tony. Gibbs just laughed at Tony who was rubbing the back of his head, before offering Emily his arm and leading his daughter and Shepard into the restaurant knowing the others would follow when they were ready. They had their own reservations, after all.

It was nice to see Emily so happy, enjoying their dinner as much as he was. And it was even nicer to have her all to himself without Abby or Ziva or anyone else popping in, though she was paying an awful a lot of attention to the puppy….

"You didn't have to do all this," she said after a while of not so serious and heavy conversation.

"You deserve it," he said simply. There was no way he could ever fully explain everything she did for him every day just by allowing him to be a true father to her.

She stayed quiet for a long time and he could tell she was trying to pluck up the courage to say something. "I hope I didn't overstep the boundaries. I don't pretend to know what Shannon and Kelly would want, but I know that if anything were to happen to me, I wouldn't want you to blame yourself or forget what an amazing NCIS agent you are."  
His heart stopped for a minute, but not because she mentioned Shannon and Kelly. Instead it was the mentioning of something happening to her. He would die before he ever let anyone harm her. Turning her chin to look at him, so that he had her full attention, he sternly whispered, "Hey…don't talk like that. Nothing is _ever_ going to happen to you. But you're right about one thing, Shannon and Kelly wouldn't want me to blame myself."

She nodded, though he could tell she wasn't all that convinced that nothing would happen to her. He could hardly blame her, though, with everything that had happened thus far. Being kidnapped by a crazed French arms dealer, then later having that same arms dealer threaten her a second time, and after all that her mother was murdered. It was no wonder she believed nothing in life was certain.

But instead of trying to drive his point home, knowing he would never be able to convince her, he moved onto less serious topics of what they wanted to buy for Shepard and his training schedule. Her eyes lit up as she started mentally making a list of all the things she wanted to spoil the dog and he was starting to get the feeling that they were going to end up adopting Shepard instead of turning him over in a year.

"So what did you promise Abby, Ziva, Tony and McGee for keeping all this quiet?"

He chuckled. She would pick up on that. "A night off from Rule 12."

"And by that you mean…?"

"I mean Tony can go on a date with Ziva, McGee can go on a date with Abby and when tomorrow comes we all pretend nothing happened and everything goes back to normal. Hence why Tony booked them tables tonight too."

She smiled a half smiled, glancing at him slyly. "That's awful nice of you. You wouldn't be going soft on us, would you?"

"Me?" he scoffed. "Naw, I just know what I gotta do to get them to help out."

"_Right…_" she laughed.

"Come on, let's get out of here," he said, signing the check. "We got a boat to build."

"Yes! Wait till Shepard sees the boat. I bet he's going to just love it!" Yep, they were definitely going to be adopting this puppy.

They let the others take the limo for the rest of the night, knowing they probably had other places to go. Instead they opted to just head home for some quality time building "The Jenny." They'd finally agreed on which form of her name to use, deciding to go with the Jen's preference.

He was surprised to find a package waiting for them on the front steps. While Emily wrestled Shepard by his leash into the house, he picked it up and noticed that it wasn't for him but for Emily. "It's for you."

Her head popped up, staring at the package, and he started to get an uneasy feeling. He watched her shake it off and shrug simply at him in an attempt to mask her earlier emotion. "It's from SecNav. He feels bad he missed my birthday so he thought he'd give me a late gift."

Nodding he placed it on the table, sighing. "Guess the cats out of the bag," he commented, only mildly surprised that he didn't really care if it cost him his job.

"Well with everyone at NCIS knowing the truth, it was only a matter of time before he found out. But, if it helps, he doesn't care about what happened between you and Mom."

He started to say that it didn't matter what SecNav thought because he wouldn't change a thing, but he couldn't help but stop and chuckle as he observed Emily instantly start kicking off her heels and all but ripping her hair clip out so her hair tumbled down below her shoulders. She pulled an elastic out of nowhere and tied her hair up in a more comfortable ponytail. The girls' could dress her up like the proper and sexy woman her mother used to be, but deep down she was still his little tomboy.

Mimicking her, he tossed his jacket on a chair, untucked his shirt and loosened the top buttons of his collar, feeling much more relaxed. They shared a smile before bursting out laughing. He felt Emily's hand wrap around his arm and start to drag him towards the basement. Laughing at how unlike most girls her age, she didn't care about getting her dress covered in sawdust, he quickly followed before stopping short for a moment.

"Don't you want to open your gift?" He watched intently as she gazed back at the gift for a while and then back at him. He could literally see a difficult decision being made behind her eyes.

"No. It's usually nothing I like anyway. Now, come one," she ordered giving him a rather large tug. Stumbling to keep up with her on the stares, he decided to let it go for now, but made a mental note to look into it later on.

[][][][][][]

He shouldn't be here, should never have gotten involved in this group, no matter what they had promised him. And as it turned out, when he finally got what he wanted all along, it really wasn't all he'd built it up to be. He'd set this goal on such a high pedestal that he had expected it to be nothing but pure bliss for him. But reaching that goal had come with a heavy price, one he was still trying to pay off, and it was that price tag that seemed to taint every single aspect of his dream job, Director of NCIS.

They told him having the blood of one woman on his hands, one woman who had made his life miserable for day one by getting the job he wanted and then giving him that bad performance review, wouldn't be nearly as hard to live with as people made it out to be. He hadn't known she had a family, a little girl whose mother was now dead because of him. All he knew was there was talk that even _Gibbs_ would have made a better director than him. GIBBS of all people! So he plotted and plotted but his plan to get her arrested failed, quite possibly cementing her into the position of director that much more.

Then his old friend Clay Jarvis introduced him to a group of people who offered to help his cause. His first indication to run should have been the fact that they seemed to know everything about him, his goals, and his family. Though now a days he thinks if he'd turn them down he might not still be walking.

They told him it would be simple and quick. He'd hardly have to do anything at all, just get them some information on an old operation in Paris completed way back in the late 90s. He didn't think anything of it at first, didn't even see how it could possibly relate to Jennifer Shepard. The names of any agents involved were apparently kept out of the file, so to him it looked like a simple assassination of a Russian arms dealer and his handler/fiancée.

He was naïve, didn't actually believe they would hurt her. He thought it they would somehow discredit her as Director and send her packing. He hadn't known them back then the way he knew them now. Now, he knew their quest to eliminated Jenny Shepard went far beyond gaining control of Vance and therefore NCIS. But they succeeded in both.

Though they didn't actually believe they did and he was beginning to think they were extremely paranoid considering all the power they held. Which was why he was still in their clutches and why he was about to break the only remaining principle he hadn't destroyed thus far. He never thought he'd sink this low and he knew he would regret this far more than anything else, but he had his family to think about.

Hoping this information might allow him to break free of the group, he took a deep breath and told the group, "Jenny Shepard has a daughter. She's sixteen and has relocated herself back to D.C."

While some faces managed to remain neutral, there were still a number of shocked faces, his friend Clay being one of them. "That is not possible."

"Shepard kept her a secret. Most didn't know she existed until recent months, her father, Agent Gibbs, included."

"She would not have managed to stay under our radar this long," another man, who Vance didn't recognize, insisted.

Vance opened his mouth to object, desperate for them to believe that he was providing them with vital information, but the leader of the group or at least the section he dealt with interrupted. "She is under the protection of Gibbs now, I presume."

Vance knew little about the man other than that he was retired from the military, but it was obvious that this news was not new to him. "Yes, I did know of the girl's existence," the man laughed at Vance's shocked expression. "As did some of my counterparts who I decided would be pertinent to this information. I am, however, a tad surprised that you chose to share such information."

"You wanted to know once and for all if Jenny Shepard is alive or dead…"

"And the best way to do that is through the girl," the man finished for him. "I agree."

"Though given Gibbs' history getting to her will not be easy," Vance pointed out, trying to bide the girl and her father some time. He hated having to trade them for his family's safety, but he would do what he had to. He briefly wondered if Gibbs would do the same if their positions were reversed, though Vance knew he would not. Gibbs was always the better man. "Though she did storm off when she saw him with another woman. If you could drive a wedge between the two, it might give you a window of opportunity."

The room instantly burst into chatter with people shouting out idea after idea, but the leader silenced them all. "It's quite simple. You threaten the girl."

"But that will send Gibbs into overdrive," Vance objected.

"Exactly. The girl has been all but on her own for seven years. She's independent and I'm willing to bet an overprotective father is the last thing she wants." The man said it with such ease and Vance wanted to puke. How could the man be plotting to torture a teenage girl and eventually kill her and feel _nothing_? If he didn't know he was way over his head with no way out before, he certainly did now. And worst of all? He'd just dragged Gibbs and an innocent girl down with him.


	10. A Dinner That Costs

Chapter Ten: A Dinner That Costs

_Authors Note: Sorry it's been a while! I've been really sick, but now that I'm feeling better I should be back to uploading. I know I say that all the time, but I am seriously determined to finish this story! I hope you guys are still interesting in reading it. And if you are thank you so much for sticking with me and my neglectful absences! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed thus far. _

_I feel like ladybugsmomma__ and __xxhiphuggersxx__ and __Tempe4Booth__ deserve special shootouts for all their repeat reviews. I love hearing from you guys about each chapter (if I forgot anyone who continuously reviews my sincere apologies and shoot me a message & I'll fix it next chapter). But I greatly appreciate anyone and everyone who has reviewed, even if it has only been once! Also __DD Agent__ Wow thank you so much! That review totally made my day when I read it & I'm sorry you had to wait such a long while. _

_Anyway thanks to everyone, keep the reviews coming, I'll have the next chap up soon (serious promise I swear…already have half of it written!) and Enjoy!_

**March 2006**

"Are you ready for another tale about the Kingdom of NCIS?" Jenny asked scooting her daughter over a bit so she could sit on the edge of the girl's bed. It had become a sort of bedtime ritual for the two and Jenny was rather impressed with herself for having come up with the idea.

"Yea!" Emily cried excitedly. So much for trying to get her to relax and go to sleep.

"Okay, but I need you to remind me where we left off in the story."

Concentrating hard, Emily's eyebrows furrowed as she tried to recall. Her eyes lit up shortly afterwards, clearly proud of herself for remembering the last thing she heard before falling asleep the previous night. "The dragon had gotten to Fair Maiden Kate and King Morrow turned the Kingdom over to you…I mean former Princess, now Queen Shepard who was just about to be reunited with the brave and strong Knight Gibbs."

"Ah…the _big_ moment," laughed Jenny. If Emily only knew how big the real event had been for her. "Alright so… The brave Knight Gibbs stood shocked that the King would ever consider turning the Kingdom of NCIS over to anyone.

_Who will be taking over the crown, sir?_ Knight Gibbs asked. King Morrow, who knew that Knight Gibbs and Princess Shepard had been…" Jenny paused for a moment trying to decide how best to describe this. Emily still believed Gibbs to be a different person than her father and Jenny was unsure how she would react to hear Queen Shepard had a romantic past with Knight Gibbs. So instead she opted for, "acquainted in the past smirked ever so slightly, as to not give anything away before giving Queen Shepard permission to reveal herself. When she turned around to face him, everything suddenly came flooding back to her and she could see in his eyes that he was reliving their past as well. For years they were one another's partner, hunting down the most fearsome beasts in the land, but all that was before he discovered who she truly was – a princess, royalty, destined for higher places. So there she stood before him now queen of the kingdom…"

"Mommy?" Emily's sleepy voice piped up.

"Yes, baby?" Jenny asked, happy that her daughter seemed to be on the verge of sleep. Talking about reuniting with Jethro after six years was proving to still be emotional, even after months had gone by.

"You love Agent Gibbs, don't you?" Emily asked, shocking Jenny.

"What…what gives you that idea, sweetheart?" Jenny managed to squeak out, still surprised at her daughters question.

"You talk about him like you do," she said simply.

"Emily, I…" Jenny started to explain, worried Emily might be upset, but the girl interrupted.

"It's okay if you do, Mommy. Ziva talks about him a lot. He seems like he would be a good for you."

"But your father…"

"Would be here if he wanted to be," she said yawning, before rolling over. Jenny watched the girl's breathing even out into a peaceful sleep. Jenny sat there for a long while watching her daughter sleep. Even after all this time, she was still amazed by her daughter's ability to take the most complicated of scenarios and make them seem so simple. Jethro could have come after her…should have if she was truly special to him. But he didn't.

If only it could really be as simple as that. If only that meant she could stop loving him. If only that meant she didn't feel need to throw caution to the wind and run after him every time he wound up in a little bit of trouble. A situation she found herself in the very next day when Gibbs decided it would be a grand idea to become the hostage of a fifteen year old kid wearing a bomb.

Pulling open her desk drawer she grabbed her service weapon and it was an almost surreal moment when she realized the only time she ever used this gun these days was with Gibbs. She knew she shouldn't be going down to that school. As Director her job was to trust her agents to see the mission through, trust that they know what they're doing. Her job was no longer to go down and take control of an operation. But this was Gibbs, her old partner, her ex-lover, the father of her child, the man to this day she still loved! She could not just sit here and do nothing.

Only she was reminded that a Director never has a few seconds to herself, let alone a whole day to go supervise a hostage situation, when there was a knock at her door and Cynthia announced, "Director Shepard, Dr. Mallard's here to see you."

Quickly strapping her weapon to her back, she sighed and ordered, "Send him in, Cynthia." Ducky was Gibbs' friend too. It was likely he was just as uncomfortable sitting around doing nothing as she was.

"Anything new?" he asked anxiously.

"I just got off the phone with DiNozzo. Still no contact." God once they got Gibbs safely out of harm's way, she was going to kill him!

"What exactly happened?" Ducky asked, picking up on her pissed off tone.

"Jethro happened, Ducky," she explained, as if it should be obvious. Only Jethro would be stupid enough to get himself into a situation like this. "He went in to deliver a girl's inhaler and got invited to stay."

"Yes, but how could he…" he started to ask before the light bulb went on in his head. "Of course. He probably planned the whole thing."

"Jethro doesn't plan, Ducky. He follows his damn gut!" And, while she used to trust and believe in his instincts, that gut seemed to get him into more trouble than he was worth these days.

"Well, it usually serves him well."

"It also gets him into trouble." She wished she still had that unwavering faith in Jethro that she used to and that Ducky obviously still seemed to have, but she lost that faith somewhere between leaving him in Paris and becoming the person responsible for his actions. It also didn't help that Emily's observations kept ringing in her head over and over. _He'd be here if he wanted to be_. God love was so complicated! Yet now was most certainly not the time to be thinking about that!

"You would only be a hindrance down there," Ducky pointed out, drawing her out of her internal debate. How could he possibly know she'd been planning to go?

"What makes you think…?"

"You're wearing your sidearm," he stated as if it were obvious.

Okay, so apparently it was obvious. But how could he think she could stay here while Gibbs could be blown up at any second! "Gibbs was my partner, Ducky. For a long time. I cannot just sit by here and do nothing," she explained, knowing that he would understand that by partner she was not talking about NCIS but about the more personal bond the two shared.

"Well, of course not. Nobody expects you to do nothing."

She stared at him for a long time, trying to determine if she could do it. Could she still love Gibbs all while being a good Director and doing her job? Originally she believed she couldn't, kept using Emily as an excuse to keep him at arm's length, but she realized now that if she ever wanted things to work out between them, she had to try. Had to find a way to balance the two. Reaching around behind her, she pulled off her sidearm, deciding to stay. "Cynthia?" she called out to her assistant.

And in an instant Cynthia was at her door. "I want a direct feed into DiNozzo's command post, ASAP," she instructed. If she had to stay here, she would at least insure she knew everything that was going on.

"Yes, Director." Cynthia agreed, before hurrying off to set everything up.

"That is a good decision, Director," Ducky told her, but she had a hard time believing him when every fiber in her being was screaming at her to go down to that school and save the man she loved.

"I'll believe that when the situation is defused."

"Right," he nodded, understanding how difficult this decision was for her. "But until then I may have something to brighten your spirits," he said moving towards the door and checking to make sure Cynthia was otherwise occupied.

He disappeared for a few moments confusing Jenny, but when he returned holding hands with a familiar face, she suddenly understood. "Mommy!" Emily cried, running up and throwing her arms around Jenny.

"Hey, sweetheart!" Jenny said smiling for the first time all day, as she wrapped her hands around her daughter. "Not that I'm not pleased to see you, but shouldn't you be in school?" Jenny asked, hoping to God she hadn't forgotten to pick the girl up on a half day or anything.

"Ah, I can answer that, Jennifer, dear," Ducky said stepping in. "The school called me. I believe they tried to get through to you, but with your line ringing off the hook all day, I assume their call probably got lost in the chaos. A number of schools in the area decided to send their students home due to the current threat."

That seemed a tad overly cautious to Jenny. After all the blast radius would hardly be that large, but she was hardly going to complain about having extra time with her daughter. "Well then, it looks like you and I will have an extra pair of hands to help us out today, Ducky," Jenny said, taking her daughters hand and setting her up on the couch.

"I am always thrilled to have an extra set of eyes and ears, especially from someone so intelligent," he said, smiling over at Emily, who blushed ever so slightly as she fished through her backpack for her book. "What are you reading, my dear?" Ducky asked, impressed at the rather large chapter book she pulled out.

"Harry Potter!" she cried excitedly.

"You wouldn't believe it, Ducky. I only bought her the first one last week and she's already on the third book," Jenny said, pride laced in her voice.

"My, my…that is impressive," Ducky commented, just before Cynthia hollered into the room that she had DiNozzo on the line. Emily continued to impress both of them, by opening her book as Cynthia's voice filled the room, recognizing her mother needed to return to work.

Only problem was DiNozzo's update did nothing to put her at ease or make her feel as if she made the correct decision. "He wants his dead mother brought to the classroom?" she exclaimed. Surely she must have heard him wrong.

"He won't accept she's dead. Thinks he saw her recently." Great so she wasn't just dealing with a disturbed student but a mentally unstable one.

"It's not an unusual fantasy in grief," Ducky clarified, sensing her fear for Jethro's safety rising, as her eyes drifted back towards the drawer with her service weapon.

While it may be common, she still couldn't meet his demands, leaving all those children and Jethro in even more danger. "That is an impossible demand," she pointed up.

"I know, Director. I'm working on it," DiNozzo assured her, with annoyance in his voice that she thought only Gibbs would show her.

"Define working on it, Agent DiNozzo?" she pushed, not liking his tone. While Gibbs often pushed her around, she would not let other agents believe that they could also make a habit of dismissing her authority. Gibbs had once been her boss and even though she was now his, it was a difficult relationship switch for the both of them, but the others did not have that excuse.

"SRT's in place, working on getting visual access into the room and a way to contact Gibbs."

"And?" she pressed, anxious for some good news. So far it seemed like nothing had been accomplished and with each minute that passed was one less minute those kids and Gibbs didn't have.

"And we're just getting started."

"What's your deadline?" She hoped to God it wasn't anytime soon.

"Sundown. About five hours," he told her. And while it wasn't spectacular news, it did give her some relief that they still had time. Still not long enough considering they had no idea what the bomb was or how powerful it would be. So she had no option but to ask Tony the one thing she absolutely hated to ask, especially with her daughter in the room. Whether he was capable of ordering the snipers to take the shot should the opportunity arise?

"I've done it before," was his response but she could tell that he was hesitant. And who wouldn't be? After all this was a boy who simply missed his mother. Only problem was he endangered a lot of people's lives in the hopes that she wasn't dead.

However when she tried to tell him that he had to be absolutely sure he could make the call without any hesitation, he got more than a little pissed off. "Okay, if you don't trust me, I suggest you relieve me. Otherwise, leave me alone. I've got work to do, ma'am," he bellowed before hanging up on her.

She stared at the phone horrified that someone other than Gibbs had the audacity speak to her like that, let alone hang up on her. The only difference was Gibbs wouldn't have bothered to call her ma'am. Hanging up the phone and putting her glasses on angrily, she huffed into her desk chair, commenting to Ducky, "Gibbs has rubbed off on him."

"Well, that's a positive thing." Positive? Did he miss the way DiNozzo was talking to her?

"He isn't Gibbs, Ducky," she said, trying to make him see that only Gibbs could get away with it.

"No, but he's very capable," Ducky said, indicating she should trust him to get the job done, just as she always trusted Jethro to do so. After all Gibbs wouldn't put his faith in just any old agent.

"I don't think Kody is crazy," a small voice interrupted, but when Jenny and Ducky glanced over at Emily she looked as if she was still intent in reading her book. However, Jenny knew better. Sure enough after she realized she was caught, Emily put her book down and continued. "I would wear a bomb if it meant getting you back, Mommy, but I wouldn't put other kids in danger."

Jenny stood there speechless, somewhere between trying to process the fact that her daughter would strap a bomb on herself just to see her again and trying to figure out how this related to Kody's situation. And then suddenly it dawned on her exactly what point Emily was making. Her eyes lit up at the realization and, while she tried to contain herself, she couldn't help but exclaim, "Emily! You…are…a…genius!"

"So they tell me," she shrugged, before returning her attention back to her book, looking quite pleased with herself.

"Oh, and Emily?" Jenny said typing away on her computer.

"Yes, Mommy?"

"While I appreciate the sentiment and how it relates this case…don't you ever dare strap a bomb to yourself," she ordered sternly, yet lovingly.

"Yes, ma'am," she agreed, head still in her book, but Jenny could tell by her tone that she understood.

Seeing as Ducky was looking back and forth between the two, obviously confused at the realization they had come to, Jenny finished pulling up the article on Kody's mother's death and put it up on the plasma. "The boy's mother?" he questioned.

"Yes," she told him before clicking the intercom on her phone. "Cynthia?"

"Ma'am?" her assistant questioned.

"I need the NCIS case file on the drowning of Marine dependent Angela Meyers," she ordered, glancing over to see a small smirk weave its way onto Emily's face from behind her book. Sneaky little devil…how did she get so good at multi-tasking?

"What are you up to?" Ducky questioned, still glancing between the two, trying to figure them out.

"The boy wants his mother," she told him simply. "We may have to give her to him."

"What is that you two have cooked up here?" Ducky finally broke down and asked.

"Like Emily said, while she would wear the bomb, she wouldn't put other people in harm's way. Therefore…"

"It might not be Kody's idea," Emily finished for her.

Ducky glanced at Jenny and then back to Emily before breaking out in a smile. "That, my dear, is absolutely brilliant."

"Not completely, Ducky," Emily sighed, confusing Jenny. Moments ago the girl had been confident in her decision.

"Why is that, sweetheart?"

"Because that doesn't mean his mom isn't dead," she pointed out sadly and Jenny's stomach twisted in knots. She'd overlooked that particular detail and the realization was not helping her prevent herself from rushing down to that school.

Though as it turned out, her seven year old future NCIS agent's gut instinct had been right on the money. God she was her father's daughter even if she didn't know it and because of that a mother was reunited with her husband and son, putting a family back together. Not too shabby for her first "case" and the fact that she was only seven.

**April 2006**

Things with Jethro were still as complicated as ever. While they hardly hated each other and had bonded a little bit more since her mother's visit, the tension from their past and from the cases involving Tony and McGee still hung over their heads. So when Jethro and his team caught a triple homicide of three gang bangers and their prime suspect was a Marine, Jenny knew they were in for a bumpy ride. And it got that much bumpier when the Marine's unit wasn't allowed to return as scheduled from Iraq until Gibbs' case was closed.

To put off any potential problems, she'd taken to hiding out in MTAC watching over various missions in progress, until Jethro took it upon himself to find her and plop down into the seat next to her. "Jethro," she greeted.

"Three bodies found with First Sergeant Downing…" he dove right into business, skipping over any pleasantries.

"Were killed with his personal weapon. I heard," she finished for him. That much she already knew and she was anxious to see if he was actually _willing_ here to provide her with updates on his case. She passed him the case file she was holding, knowing he probably would not like what it said anymore than she did.

She tired her hardest not to laugh as he squinted and held the file at arm's length. "Where are your glasses?" she asked, smirking. She still did not understand why he simply didn't wear them.

"I forgot them." _'Sure he did!' _she thought to herself, while passing him her own glasses. She had to bit her tongue to keep her from making a crack about what he looked like wearing pink rhinestone glasses. She couldn't even get Emily to try on similar ones. Instead the girl insisted on plain black ones. Just another similarity between those two. She knew it was selfish, but with all the two had in common she was somewhat glad Emily didn't know her father just yet. It was already completely obvious Emily was her Daddy's girl.

If Jethro had been in Emily's life, Jenny knew she would have never gotten to spend any time with the girl, let alone have the close nit relationship that they did. It was horrible to feel that way she knew, but Emily was _her_ little girl and while she hated to admit it she was a tad jealous of the thought that Jethro may take her daughter's admiration away if they were to ever meet.

Jethro's angry expression at the ruling that Sergeant Downing committed murder for the revenge before being killed himself, while subtle, was still enough to drag her back to the present and the fact that she had work to do. "I don't like what it says either," she told him.

"First Sergeants don't go looking for this kind of payback."

She wanted to believe him, wanted to believe that there was no way a Marine would go and commit triple homicide for revenge, but she knew what Jethro was saying wasn't necessarily true. As awful as it sound, she would go to those lengths for Emily. Cairo had proved that. She would probably do the same if anyone were to harm Jethro. Not to mention, he would as well. And she knew that one for a fact because he told her so, back when they trusted one another with that kind of information. And that's exactly what she told him, 'You would."

"I was only a gunny," he told her and she wondered if perhaps he'd forgotten that conversation they'd had after making love one night. It was always in that pure bliss aftermath moments of love making when they were the most openly honest with one another. Jethro would brush a stray hair out of her face, she would prop herself on her elbow, shifting closer to him allowing him to run his hand down her back. He would tell her how beautiful she was and then they would talk…actually talk. Not about work, their assignments, or how very very wrong this affair was. They would _really_ talk and more importantly Jethro would talk. Usually Jenny did most of the talking on stakeouts, at dinner, walking down the streets of whatever city they were working in. Jethro preferred actions more than words, but in these short moments Jethro would open up and she always treasured that.

Perhaps he did that with all of his ex-wives and girlfriends. She always believed that it was because she was different or special that he considered opening up to her, but what if she'd been naive. What if the reason he wasn't acting like he remembered the conversation in the reverent way she remembered it was because he simply had it with everyone he had sex with?

She stopped herself short there as if slamming the breaks in a car. She was not going to think about that! She needed to focus on the case. "The Marine Corp is worried his company is gonna come back from Iraq and look for revenge," she explained to him, trying her hardest to focus back on work and contain her composure so he wouldn't know where her thoughts had drifted to. "It could be a bloodbath."

He was quiet and she could sense her thoughts drifting back towards that night and whether it meant anything to him. To distract herself, she grabbed his coffee out of the cup and downed a sip like it was alcohol and it certainly burned like alcohol! Her face scrunched up at the retched taste and she felt like puking. "How do you drink that swill?"

Ignoring her insult to his coffee, he asked, "How much time do I have?"

"They were to return this week," she told him, hoping to avoid having to tell him this.

"Were?" he questioned, as she knew he would.

"Their rotation's been held up till your investigation's over." And she watched the outraged cross his face at the thought that they were making these Marines wait to come home to their families because of this. She hated the idea too. "They're still in a war zone instead of with their families, Jethro. I don't care if First Sergeant Downing killed those gang-bangers. If he didn't, find out who did. If he did, close the case."

"You're wrong, Jenny," he told her standing up, confusing her. Did he figure out she was doubting whether their private conversations were special to him? But instead of mentioning anything along those lines he told her, "You do care," he said, knowing she did care and would be disappointed if the Downing committed murder. And damn him, he was right…as always.

The thought of Jethro having those private, intimate moments with just any old redheaded woman nagged at her and nagged at her all throughout her day of supervising MTAC missions. Thankfully supervising them hardly required any brain activity unless of course something went wrong. Luckily all the missions functioned smoothly. Unfortunately, that meant she had plenty of time to overanalyze every blissful moment she spent with Gibbs. Only every time she started lustfully remembering one an image of Diane or Stephanie would show up, tainting the memory.

Hoping to drag herself away from this ridiculous thought process, she took a stroll over to the convenient store down the street and picked up a Caf-Pow. A visit with Abby was always a sure way to distract herself and lift up her mood. She and the young goth's relationship was building smoothly ever since their little heart to heart back around Thanksgiving. Apparently calling Abby the best forensic scientist in the world went a long way with the girl.

Strolling into Abby's lab, she was greeted by the screaming of death metal music blasting at top volume. Typical Abby. Turning the music down to a normal level, knowing Abby disliked when people turned it completely off, alerted Abby to her presence. "Director!" she greeted happily, before correcting herself, "I mean Jenny." Jenny permitted Abby, like Ziva, to call her Jenny when they were alone.

"Hello, Abby," Jenny greeted in kind, passing Abby the Caf-Pow. "I picked this up for you."

"Thank you, Jenny," she said and if it were possible she perked up even more. "So what brings you to my humble lair?"

"Needed a distraction. Thought perhaps helping you with some of the evidence from the Downing case might provide one."

Abby's smile faltered slightly and Jenny knew exactly what was bothering her. If Gibbs caught her telling Jenny anything about the case, he would be furious. He'd gone back to his you should have stayed a field agent if you wanted to know these things mode. "Don't worry, I promise to take the fall if…" she started to reassure the girl, but her cell phone started beeping. Glancing at the collar ID, she saw that it was Emily and realized it must be 3:30. Emily called her every day when she got home from school. "I have to take this, Abby. If you'll excuse me for a second."

"Of course, you can use the other part of the lab if you like. I'll prepare some stuff for us to go analyze and you can tell me what's got your mind running on high speed. It might even be fun trying to pull the wool over El Jefe's eyes."

Once in the safety of the office portion of Abby's lab, Jenny answered her phone, thrilled to hear her daughter's voice on the other end. "Hey, baby girl."

"Hi Mommy!"

"How was school, sweetheart?" she asked. Perhaps she wouldn't need to bother Abby for a distraction. Emily would undoubtedly cheer her up.

"It was good. We're going on a whale watch for our field trip. You have to sign the permission slip when I get home," Emily told her excitedly. Jenny smiled. Emily's latest craze was marine life. You could ask her anything and everything about whales, sharks, dolphins, etc. and she had the answer. A whale watch would be the perfect field trip for Emily.

"A whale watch? That's wonderful, baby. Are they…" she started, faltering when she saw the elevator doors opening, revealing Gibbs. Here she was talking on the phone with his daughter and he was walking into the lab. God this secret was getting harder and harder to keep. "Are they looking for chaperones?" she finished, so Emily wouldn't suspect anything.

"Yes. Would you really come?" the girl asked excitedly and it was just another blow to her chest. This secret was to protect her daughter from events like Cairo, but was it harming her more than it was helping her? After all, Emily was sounding surprised to hear her mother considering coming on her field trip. It made her all the more determined to do so.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world, baby. We'll talk about it when I get home and I'll insure I get the day off, but right now I have to go," she said quickly, noticing Gibbs had gotten to Abby and was probably giving the poor goth a hard time for letting Jenny in the lab.

"Okay! I love you, Mommy!"

"Love you too, baby girl," she said before hanging up, knowing she now needed to help out more at Emily's school in order to show Emily she cared more about her than her job, all while trying to maintain a low profile to keep people from connecting her and Emily putting the girl in danger. And here she thought becoming Director would make things easier for the two of them.

She walked back into Abby's lab just in time to see Jethro switch his Caf-Pow with the one Jenny had giving Abby and then throw Jenny's in the trash. He was so childish at times. "Oh that's mature," she laughed, insuring to sound amused, knowing it would aggravate him that he wasn't aggravating her with his antics.

"You have something for me?" he asked, Abby annoyed and Jenny smiled, knowing she'd succeeded.

"As a matter a fact I do," Abby said, leading the two of them back to where Jenny came from.

"You looking over my shoulder again," Jethro finally broke down and asked her, stopping short.

Turning to face him, not even hesitating over the fact that there were barely centimeters between them and she could feel his breath tickle her face. This was just like old times. Hiding their flirtations behind work related topics. "Why? You feel a little crowded?" she asked with a knowing smile.

"Yeah, a little," he said, apparently taking notice of their close proximity. Smiling at the discomfort on his face, an expression she recognized as the one he used to wear when he was restraining himself with great difficulty to not push her against the nearest wall and take her right there, she took a step backwards to give him some breathing room. After all, while she liked that she could still extract that sort of reaction out of the room, they were certainly not going rip each other's clothes off and fuck on a lab table….at least not with Abby present in the room.

"How's that?"she flirted. Just because they had to remain civilized didn't mean the moment needed to end.

"Better," he nodded, thankfully, smiling at her. She smiled back at him and for a moment they got lost in each other's eyes as if it were seven years ago. That is until Abby interrupted, coming out of the other room with her update on the bullets involved in the murder investigation, completely oblivious to what had just transpired between her two bosses. And just like that everything went back to normal and the case took over, their silent 'I want to make love to you again' conversation that would become just another distant, never-spoken-about-again memory for Jenny to add to her already spinning thoughts.

And if that weren't enough to keep her drowning in ripped off he-loves-me-he-loves-me-not flower petals, the following evening, the one night a week she and Emily allowed herself to work late, her door flung open and she knew exactly who that would be. Only when she looked up, she felt an eerie sense of déjà-vu when she saw him carrying a large bag with him.

He'd only ever brought her dinner once before and that had been when a particular case was getting to him. He always needed to have the answer. Nothing could go unfinished. It was one of the many things she loved about him. But it also meant this dinner was unlikely a social call or a continuation of what occur yesterday in Abby's lab. "Uh-oh. What is this meal gonna cost me this time?" she joked, hoping to at least keep the conversation light.

"Didn't cost you anything last time."

"You mean aside from the thousands of extra calories I didn't need?"

"I can leave," he told her and while he looked serious, he could tell he was trying his hardest to hide a smirk.

"I didn't say that," she assured him, desperately wanting to add that she would never say that and would never want him to leave. Instead she glanced over to see what kind of food he brought her this time. "Salvadorian food?" That was an interesting choice for him, certainly not any of his top picks. "How fired."

Rolling his eyes, he started to stand up as if to leave and she couldn't help but break out in laughter. "Okay. Sit. I'm sorry," she laughed, as he returned to his seat and she sat herself down too. Tossing her heels off to the side, she greatly accepted the beer he offered her before starting with the small talk on the case, knowing it was his reason for being here. "Another Marine was injured in Captain Arvidas' group."

"I know." Of course he did, but it was the only place she knew where to start. She could tell this case was really bothering him. To lighten the mood, she tapped the tip of her beer against his sitting on the table, but she received nothing more than a nod and a small smile for her efforts. So instead she went back to the case, "I heard you found the man responsible for First Sergeant Downing's death."

"His name is Cesar Bernal."

"Can you make a case?" If he knew who committed the murder and the case was still bugging him enough to come bring her dinner and pick her brain, she knew he must have a serious lack of evidence problem. And the solemn glance over to her and shake of his head, she knew exactly why he was here. He had a man responsible for a quadruple homicide and no way to put him behind bars. "I knew this meal was going to cost me. Okay, what do you have so far?" She asked with an optimistic tone to her voice, hoping it would raise his spirits. The two of them could figure this out…together.

"Cesar is making a power play for control of his crew. He's been faking orders from Miguel Sosa to the rest of the L.M.V. for the last four months."

"And Sousa?" she questioned, though she already knew the answer. There was no way the leader of a gang would allow a lower member of his crew to get away with something like that. If Cesar was alive, Sosa was dead.

"He's dead. It's the only way Cesar could have gotten away with it," Jethro confirmed, reiterating her own conclusion. Okay, so they were on the same page with this and back when they were partners, if they were on the same page, they could get themselves out of any problem or confrontation. So they could most certainly figure this one out.

And if Cesar's focus was on becoming the leader of his crew that could only mean one thing. "So First Sergeant Downing wasn't the target. He was Cesar's lure. The real targets were the three L.M.V. lieutenants," she concluded. "Cesar was taking out the leadership!" Gibbs nodded his agreement, but his mood certainly didn't perk up, which could only mean one thing…what she originally suspected. Lack of evidence. "Do you have any physical evidence?"

"Nothing linking Cesar to the crime scene," he said confirming her suspicions.

"Jethro, you're gonna need more than motive to get a jury conviction," she said, before feeling stupid that she just pointed out the obvious. Man this really was like old times when she was a probie.

Gibbs was quiet for a long while and Jenny was almost shocked he didn't call her out on her rather dumb statement. Eventually he said, "Depends on the Jury."

She stared at him for a long while. He wasn't…He couldn't…He wouldn't possibly? Oh who the hell was she kidding? Of course, he would. She would probably do the same if their roles were reversed, but she was the Director now. And by informing her of his intentions, he just insured she'd go down with him if anyone ever found out. "Jethro…I….you shouldn't have told me that."

He looked up at her and looked deep into her eyes and she thought it might have been the most serious she'd ever seen him. "I'm telling you because you deserve to hear it from me and not the morning news. And…" he hesitated slightly before staring her down once more. "Because you deserve to make the call."

"You want me to what?" she exclaimed, horrified.

"Jen," he said fondly and she felt his hand rest over hers, but, while that would ordinarily distract her, the way he was looking at her held her full attention. "I did not tell you so that you would go down with me. If anyone ever finds out the truth, this conversation never happened, as far as I'm concerned. But you deserve…you have the right to remove me from this case, should you feel my actions go against how you want this handled and…I swear I will actually follow your order if you so choose."

He was giving her a choice? What had gotten into him? The Jethro she had known six years ago would give her a choice, yes, but the Jethro she knew as of late would simply tell Cesar's gang the truth and drop him off to be murdered by his own gang without even thinking of asking her opinion. "Why…why are you doing this, Jethro?" she whispered.

"Because this isn't an easy decision and…" he started and before she knew what was happening his lips pressed lightly against her cheek, daringly close to her own lips. "Because I'm tired of fighting, Jen."

Her heart was pounding, her stomach was fluttering with a thousand butterflies, and her blood was plumping at what she thought might be dangerous levels as she leaned in brushed her lips lightly against his own. It felt incredible, it felt right, it felt like she was floating on air and every other possible romantic cliché you heard in chick flicks or read in those romantic novels that were her dirty little secret passion.

But as the kiss deepened and he pulled her out of her seat into his lap, everything came crashing down on her. Her job…her daughter…everything she and Jethro had been through…SecNav…The President….the media. A relationship between a Director and a subordinate would be a career ending scandal that would last for a long time on every news station and in every paper, magazine, tabloid. Her life ruined, Jethro's life ruined, and her daughter's life ruined.

But God kissing Jethro made her feel like she was right where she belonged….No! She could not do this. It wasn't as if their relationship would last very long. She could see it all now. They would make out right here in her office, probably fuck right there on her desk to say screw it to the rules, but eventually they would want to not just have sex but make love.

He would guide her down to his car, arm wrapped around her waist, keeping her nice and close. He would drive her home to her place, begin kissing her from there to the front door, barely allowing her unlock the door, all while making a joke that they should have gone to his place since he doesn't lock his door.

And then the door would open and a seven year old girl would come slamming into them, expecting just her mother and it would be like 'Surprise! This is your daughter Emily that I've kept a secret from you for seven years…eight if you count the pregnancy. So do you still want to do upstairs and make love? Hell maybe we'll end up with a second child that I'll actually tell you about this time!' Oh yes, if she allowed this to continue, this relationship would last all of two hours not forever like she wanted.

So when she felt Jethro's hand gliding up under her shirt, she pulled away like he was on fire. Trying not to cry, she looked up at him ashamed. "Jethro…I want to," she all but whispered.

"I know," he said just as quietly.

"It's just, we can't…not now," she said, glancing down sadly.

"I know," he repeated. "I know. It's why I haven't pushed you." She looked up at him once more. He was being so sweet. He was always so sweet to her. She loved this side of him and loved the fact that she got to see it. Not many people did and she doubted Tony or McGee even thought him capable of it. But in reality, Jethro was sweet. She knew she kept overusing that description, but there was simply no other word for it.

She rested her hand on his. "I'm sorry, Jethro and don't give a damn about rule number six." She then moved her hand to caress his face. "I don't want to fight anymore either, though. I can't promise we won't, but I don't want to."

"We'll do our best, then."

"Agreed," she said standing and walking over to her desk. Jethro silently packed up the food and Jenny shut off her computer and grabbed her coat. After she finished, she walked over to him, her heart breaking slowly, and stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. "Do what you have to do with Cesar," she told him before walking out the door, tears already streaming down her face over both of the decisions she just had to make. Jethro was wrong. This dinner had cost her. It cost her her heart and her morality.


	11. Target Practice

Chapter Eleven: Target Practice

_A/N: Sorry the update took so long. I had more written for this chapter than I uploaded because I was having a hard time deciding where I should stop. Anyway, thanks for the reviews and enjoy!_

**Present Day**

Everything about this day had been horrible. No case had come in, so he'd spent ninety percent of his day doing paperwork and the other ten percent eating lunch alone because Emily was spending the day with _Carson_. And no he still was not over the fact that his baby girl…his innocent baby girl had a boyfriend. Plus he _may have_…_slightly_ antagonized the situation by calling her five times throughout the day and having Tony call once on top of that.

And then there was Vance. The guy was mental and defensive on a usual basis, always looking over his shoulder. But lately he'd been on Gibbs' case that much more. Even more unnerving and uncomfortable was Vance's new found interest in Gibbs' personal life. Always asking things like: 'How's Emily doing?' 'She happy to be out of school?' 'You two getting along okay because, you know I've got a daughter myself and I'd be willing to provide pointers if you need any.'

Outsiders may see it as a boss simply being nice to one of his best agents, but Vance was not the type of person to get down and chummy with his coworkers – most especially Gibbs. Gibbs hardly thought that he now having a daughter would change that. And, frankly, it was just downright annoying.

So in the essence of sparing himself any more misery, Gibbs decided to leave on time, surprising most of his team. Ignoring their questionable glances and Tony's side comment to McGee that Gibbs was probably going to pummel Carson to a pulp, Gibbs floored it to the elevators, thinking perhaps that might not be a bad idea. At least then, he'd have his lunch date back.

However, when he arrived home, he noticed Carson's car was not parked in the driveway. Great it was nearly dinner time and the two still weren't back. Slumping his shoulders, he flung the door open, hoping that at least maybe the dog would come running to welcome him home. Only no such luck. _'Tell me she didn't bring the dog with her too!_'

The house seemed remarkably quiet, considering Shepard turned out to hardly be a quiet puppy. Instead, he was rather troublesome and he was starting to think that maybe it had been a bad omen to name him Shepard. Trouble always seemed to follow the Shepard family around, making this eerie silence unnerving.

When a slight breeze tickled his skin, his gun was drawn in less than a second. They may leave the door unlocked but they certainly never left the windows or slider door open. Stalking slowly towards the back of the house, keeping to the shadows, he found that the slider door was completely open.

Only when the ringing of familiar laughter, met his ear, he quickly moved into the doorway to find Emily lying on the ground, Shepard pinning her down and attacking her face with his tongue. Mentally head-slapping himself, he put his gun away, and leaned against the doorframe, his bad day slowly vanishing away. Smiling, he hollered over, "Are you sure I shouldn't call Mrs. Wilkins and tell her we're adopting him?"

His voice seemed to finally register to the both of them and Shepard barked happily, running over to Gibbs, tail wagging at ridiculous speeds. He bent down, ruffling the puppy's fir. "That-a-boy! Did you take care of my girl today?" Shepard let out another perky bark, and Gibbs added, "Good boy."

Emily followed next and he was surprised when he glanced up from petting Shepard to see there was no scowl on her face. He thought for sure she would be sending him that menacing death glare of hers at him for bothering her all day. Dare he hope she and Carson were through and she was going to tell him he was right? "Hey, sweetheart," he greeted, cautiously pulling her into a hug.

He relaxed when he felt her arms wrap securely around him. "Welcome home, Dad," she said in turn, rising on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.

"Everything okay?" he questioned, finding this whole situation rather odd. Three hours ago when he talked to her on the phone, the annoyance in her voice and aggravation with him had been clear, and yet here she was welcoming him home with a smile. Oh this was so very Jen…the calm before the storm method!

"Everything's fine," she said calmly. "Tony mentioned during _his_ phone call that you guys were stuck doing paperwork all day. _However,_ call to check up on me five times a day again and I will not let the paperwork excuse slide," she added in an oh-so-director-like fashion, brushing past him to go inside with a smirk on her face.

He stood there for a moment, glancing down at Shepard, who was giving him the same what-just-happened face that was housed on his own, before remembering he was the parent here. "Hold up there, missy," he called after her. "Last time I checked…"

"You're my Dad and can do whatever you want, including call me five times a day should you so choose," she filled in for him sounding annoyed before, braking out in a smile again. "I know that and I love that," she said hugging him. "But you have to trust me," she told him.

"I do," he assured her. "I just don't trust…" he started, before she interrupted.

"Uh..uh..uh don't even go and do that totally corny line that every Dad throws out there," she said wagging her finger, before becoming serious again, "You and I both know that part of trusting each other is trusting each other's judgment and you need to start trusting mine."

Sighing, he realized why people always got so annoyed with him for being right so much. "You're right and I will," he promised.

"Good," she nodded. "Soooo…Chinese or burgers tonight?" she asked. It was a work on the boat night, which generally meant take out.

He thought for a moment. Neither really sounded all that appealing. All of a sudden he didn't seem to want to work on The Jenny and it's the first time he can remember ever not wanting to work on his boat. Vance's probing was starting to get to him. Mostly because he didn't know the answers. Lately, he'd been stuck on cases, working long hours, and the only time they got to spend together was working on The Jenny, for which they basically only talked about their memories of Jen.

He realized he and Emily hadn't talked about anything else for a long while. And he couldn't help but wonder, like Vance, how _was_ she? And were they getting along? Maybe he did need a few pointers… "How 'bout neither?"

"Getting a little adventurous there, Dad? Looking to try the new Tai food place Tony keeps raving about?" she laughed, surprised he wasn't opting for one of his two favorites.

"Aw God no! The only person with worst taste in food then DiNozzo was Kate," he exclaimed. "I was thinking…maybe we should go out tonight? You know…catch up?" he asked cautiously, nervous she might not want to. She was really getting into building the boat and they were making remarkable progress compared to his usual pace. Maybe she wouldn't want to take a night off. Or worse, perhaps they were not getting along as well as he believed.

"That sounds great!" she exclaimed excitedly, complete opposite of what his inner fears believed her reaction would be. "Where to?"

He glanced down at his attire. There were a number of wrinkles from sitting at his desk all day, but overall it was still in decent condition. It would do for the evening. "You like Palena, right?"

"Palena?" she questioned, shocked. "Yea, it's like my favorite, but Dad, I'm cool with going to a lower scale place. Mom didn't always take me to Palena or Valentino's."

He was quiet for a short while. She had a point and he already decided that he wanted tonight to be about the two of them, not their haunted past. But then an idea hit him, one he thought the both of them would enjoy. Palena and Valentino's was her and her mom's special places. He and Emily needed their own get away. And he knew just the place. "You know what? I have an idea," he said excitedly. "Grab the keys. You're driving."

"Really!" she cried, excitedly, running off to grab his keys from the counter before pausing and turning slowly around. "Waaaait a second, I thought Vance said you had to stop teaching me to drive in the company car after Ziva tried to teach me how to drive on the sidewalk."

"Oh you're not driving the company car," he said slyly, tossing her a different set of keys, temporarily ignoring the memory of having to explain _that_ incident was the reason his car needed two replacement tires to Vance. Thankfully he had managed to avoid needing to mention the drifting or the figure eight or the 360 at top speeds lessons that Ziva had also provided.

"So what am I driving?" she questioned, suspicious of his smirk.

Silently taking her arm, he started to lead her out to the garage and he could barely contain his excitement in showing her his baby for the first time. "You are going to drive this," he said, opening the door to the garage, smiling as her jaw dropped at the sight of his 1970 Dodge Challenger.

"Oh…my…God," she exclaimed, practically speechless. He watched her glance down at the keys, up at the car, back at the keys, and started to turn out of the garage. "Nooo waaaay, I think it's best you drive."

Laughing, he caught her shoulders, pulling her back into the garage. "Oh, no you don't. Come on! It'll be fun."

"Dad…this is a really nice car," she said, waving her hands as if her point should be obvious.

"I know," he replied simply.

"_And_…I learned how to drive from you and Ziva. My chances of crashing this are higher than my chances of arriving at our destination safely."

"Hey," he scoffed. "I have never crashed a car."

Now it was her turn to smirk and his smile sank. She couldn't know about that one time…but by that damn look on her face he knew she did. "DiNozzo is a dead man," he grumbled causing her to burst out in giggles. Those two hanging out as much as they did was destroying his rep. They each knew things about him that the other did not, giving them virtually unlimited conversation topics. "So this is funny to you?" he joked. "Get in the car and we'll see if you can do any better."

Dear God, he finally understood what it must feel like to drive with himself, gripping the handlebar above his head for dear life, offering up a prayer every so often. He knew he should never have let Ziva 'help' out with these driving lessons which seemed to be more like how to give your father a heart attack in ninety seconds type lessons.

Everything seemed to be a blur as they flew by, but he managed to catch a quick glimpse of the parking lot they needed to turn into. "Turn Right! Turn Right!" he cried before she could zoom past. She cut the wheel hard and he felt himself slamming into the door, as she turned into the parking lot and found a space.

He let out a rather large breath, reminding himself once again to never allow Ziva to drive him anywhere. "Tell me that's not how you're going to drive on your exam next week."

"Hey! You are _way_ worse than me and they gave you _your_ license," she objected getting out of the car.

"Yea, but by the time they realized what a big mistake that was I had a badge and a gun," he pointed out, following suit.

"Somebody's confident in themselves," she laughed sarcastically, coming round to his side of the car.

"Oh _I'm _confident." He jokingly pulled her into lose headlock, ruffling her hair, the two laughing like crazy. "Now, let's go eat," he said releasing her and walking off towards the entrance, hollering back over his shoulder. "And I'm driving home."

"Awe, come on!" she groaned. He just smirked and continued on his way to the entrance. "Fine," she grumbled, jogging to catch up with him. "So what is this place?"

"You'll see," he said simply. "Ziva mentioned you like French food," he said, opening the door. "I hope that's still true."

"It….wow," she exclaimed, cutting her own response off when she walked into the small bistro designed as a recreation of France.

"Nice, isn't it?" he grinned, leading her up to the host.

The host's eyes lit up at the sight of Gibbs walking up to him. "Bonjour, Monsieur Gibbs. It has been a long time."

"Indeed it has. This is my daughter," Gibbs introduced.

"A daughter, Monsieur Gibbs? Pleasure," he said, holding out his hand.

"Bonjour, mon nom est Emily. C'est un plaisir de vous rencontrer," she greeted, taking his hand. (Hello, my name is Emily. It is a pleasure to meet you.)

"Ah, vous parlez très bien français. Je suis impressionnè," the host exclaimed. (Ah, you speak French very well. I am impressed.)

"Je vous remercie. Une table pour deux, s'il vous plait." (Thank you. Table for two, please.)

Smiling, he grabbed two menus, saying, "Bien sûr, mon cher. Suivez-moi, s'il vous plait." (Of course, my dear. Follow me, please.)

Gibbs held back for a few moments as he watched the host start to head out to the patio. God his daughter was full of surprise. He started after them glancing over at Emily every few seconds. Eventually she looked over at him questionably and asked, "What?"

"Nothin," he shrugged. "You just continue to amaze me."

"I'm fluent in Spanish too," she smirked.

"Show off," he laughed, as they stepped out onto the patio, overlooking a lake.

It almost felt as if he were back in Paris, especially with the small replica of the Eiffel Tower in the corner. It reminded him of a small café that over looked the real Eiffel Tower and been his and Jen's favorite during their mission in Paris. Perhaps that's why his mind instantly flew here when he determined he and Emily needed a place of their own. While he hadn't known it all the time, Paris was where it all started, where their family started, where he became a father again.

For a while after they ordered, the conversation consisted of small talk and, despite how much he desperately wanted to continue on with the light conversation, he knew they couldn't. "I've been thinking about retirement," he said, trying to sound nonchalant about the idea.

Emily's reaction, however, was hardly calm. She practically spit her drink back into the glass, chocking out, "What? Why would you…"

"I asked you to come and stay with me only for me to hardly be around."

"Mom worked twelve to thirteen hours a day when I was growing up. I'm not exactly new to NCIS life and I would certainly never want you to leave it. Two months from now, school with start up again and then I'll be the one who's never around."

"Em," he said seriously, gaining her full attention. "Am I doin a good job? Honestly? 'Cause I'm not sure that I am."

"How can you possible say that? Dad, you are the best thing to happen to me in a long time."

While he was touched deeply by her words, he still couldn't bring himself to believe them. How could he possibly be the best thing in her life when he was hardly around to be in her life? "Emily, I'm at work so much that I don't even know how you're doing. And I'm not talking about the superficial stuff when I ask: how ya been, Em?"

"Oh, Dad," she sighed, shaking her head. "I wish you could have seen me back then. That way…that way you would be able to see what a difference you're making. Hell I've even stopped…" she stopped short in what she was saying and by the look on her face, he could tell she hadn't meant to add in that last part.

"Stopped what?" he questioned, curiously. When she didn't answer, he probed her some more until, she finally divulged.

"Stopped having to know every little detail about what happened to Mom. I…I used to be obsessed with solving every puzzle, every question about what happened."

"And now?" he asked. He was quite impressed that in such a short while she may have moved passed this – something he didn't think he would ever be able to do.

"Now…the desire is still there, but it's not as all-encumber-some as it used to be." She sounded confident in that answer, but he could hear the slightly unsure undertone laced in there as well and he wasn't sure she had given up on this obsession entirely yet. She may believe she moved passed it, but she had the true makings of an NCIS agent. Her curiosity didn't allow her to stop until she had the answers she was looking for.

Still, his ultimate goal was to help her move passed her mother's death, so he wrapped his arm around her and kissed the top of her head. "Good," he said to show his approval. While he understood the desire to uncover all the mysteries surrounding Jenny's death better than anyone, his gut was strongly telling him that it would be safer for her if she left this alone.

[][][][][]

She needed to stop staring at the drawer. It was as simple as that. Only it wasn't so simple. Carson was busy, Abby was late to pick her up for lunch and she had nothing else to do for the day. She tried watching TV, but her eyes kept drifting towards the drawer. She tried reading, but the same thing happened. She tried going downstairs and doing some work on the boat, but she kept "needing" things up in her room. God this was driving her crazy. At least in Mexico she could help out in the Cantina when she wasn't in school to keep her mind off things.

She should just look at it. Just take a quick peak and be done with all this before she lost her mind. But she couldn't. Not after she promised her father the other night that she'd stopped all this. And she had for a while, so it hadn't been a lie. Ever since that night he'd dressed up in his Marine uniform and took her to dinner in a limo _and_ bought her Shepard on top of all that, she realized that having her father in her life was worth more than whatever dirt on Vance SecNav had sent her. It was a remarkably hard decision to make not to open the package, but the decision had also felt so right.

Only now it was virtually _killing _her. Not just because it might lead to another piece of the puzzle about what truly happened to her mother, but also because something had gone very wrong if Vance was the Director of NCIS. And, while he'd been director for seven years, she still did not feel confident that her NCIS family, especially her father and his team, were safe with that man controlling their fate.

She already lost her mother, had nearly lost Ziva to some terrorist in North Africa. She was not going to lose her father to the Pandora's Box that she'd foolishly opened up. She was so close to solving this. She could just _feel_ it. So she technically wouldn't be going against her father's wishes if this were a matter of safety. After all he cared more about her and his team's safety than anything else in the world.

She glanced over at the clock to check on the time. Abby wouldn't be here for at least another twenty minutes, so if she were ever going to go through with this, now was the time. Gritting her teeth, she decided to just go for it and she knelt down to open the second desk drawer down, pulling out a small box. Pulling her necklace over her head, she found the tiny key she kept on the same chain as her locket and used it to open the box. Inside was a second, larger key that she took with her into the closet and opened her small square footlocker.

Even holding the envelope in her hands didn't stop the uneasy feeling she had. Somehow she just knew her father would find out about this. He always found out _everything_. But she would happily take him being angry at her for the rest of her life if it meant he stayed alive and unharmed, so in the end she tore open the package.

She pulled out a large jewelry box, confused for a moment that perhaps he really was refusing to provide her with the information she asked for, but when she opened the box, she finally understood. In the box was a beautiful necklace, but when she pulled out the cardboard insert she found a note hidden underneath.

**Blackmail.**

**CALL KORT!**

Short and sweet as it may seem to an outsider, but to her it spoke volumes. Vance wormed his way into the position of director because he had something on the SecNav. Though it was the fact that Call Kort was underlined three times that intrigued her the most. Perhaps it was time to remind Kort that he missed her birthday as well.

After quickly locking everything back up, she opened up her laptop and brought up her heavily encrypted profile of everything she'd learned and added to the timeline: _Vance promoted to director through blackmail? Dirty cop or just a sleaze bag?_

She groaned at the prospect of yet another question. It seemed that the more she dove into this the more questions she had than answers. She had to be missing something here. It didn't make sense for Vance to simply be a dirty cop. That would be too easy. Oh she was definitely certain that he was as dirty as a sewer rat, but even as director of NCIS he was still the lowest on the totem pole as far as federal agencies go. There was no way he could be in this alone.

The only thing she did know is that this ran so much deeper than The Frog and therefore so much deeper than Vance, if he was even involved at all. Just because he was a sleazy kind of cop didn't necessarily make him guilty of being in this larger conspiracy. The two could be totally unrelated, though something was telling her they weren't. Call it a gut instinct.

"Hey, Emily. Sorry I'm late," Abby's voice called from the doorway, causing her to literally jump ten feet, knocking her chair over as she quickly shut her computer.

"Abby, don't do that! You could give someone a heart attack!" Emily cried, trying to cover up for her rather obvious you-caught-me-red-handed reaction. God maybe she had been right to stop looking into this before. Whenever she did, it took over her life, so much so she hadn't even heard Abby come in. She was seriously lucky it was Abby she was going to lunch with and not Ziva.

Only Abby wasn't buying her act and kept staring her down in a very Ziva-like way that Emily wasn't entirely comfortable with. "Emily, what were you doing?" she asked seriously.

"Nothing…I was just…you scared me, Abby. That's all," Emily tried, but even she could feel her own eye twitching. "Look, Abby. It's not what you think…"

"Emily!" She shrieked, causing Emily to step backwards flinching at a tone she didn't think sweet and kind Abby capable of. "You promised us you would stop all this."

"I know and I wanted to. It's just…"

"It's just what? You want to be just like her and uncover something that gets you killed? She was my mom too, Emily! And Ziva, Tony and McGee's as well. Hell, even Palmer looked up to her! And I get it, Emily. Really I do. I understand why you want to know everything about what happened because we do too. _All of us._ But not at the cost of losing our baby sister."

Abby was on the verge of tears and Emily could feel her own eyes watering up. She just wanted to run over and hug Abby. They'd both lost so much, but it wouldn't matter if she agreed to stop or not. "I don't think it's over, Abby," she practically whispered feeling the fear and tears welding up in her own eyes.

"What…what do you mean?"

"I don't think The Frog was in this alone. I think that someone wants us to believe that the threat ended with his death when in reality…" she started to explain, when she noticed something in Abby's hand. "Abby, what is that?"

It took Abby a minute to register what the subject change was about before she glanced down and handed Emily the package. "It's addressed to you father and was on the porch. I thought I'd bring it in for you guys."

Taking the large envelope from Abby, Emily's eyes widened as she read over the address label. Glancing up quickly at Abby, she said, "Abby, we need to get to NCIS now."

"Wait…why? " Abby questioned, surprised at the seriousness and command in Emily's voice.

"It's complicated, but we have to see Dad now, Abbs," Emily said brushing past her before stopping and turning back. "I'm sorry about earlier, Abby. Sometimes I forget I wasn't her only daughter."

"It's okay," she said, pulling her into a tight, bone crushing hug before they quickly headed out to the car and back to NCIS.

[][][][][]

There were days he felt more like a preschool teacher than the supervisor of the major crimes response team at NCIS. Frankly most days had felt like that since he hired DiNozzo. Not that he would change a thing. Tony might not be blood but he was still his son and the same went for McGee and Ziva. Still that did not mean he was immune to the occasional urge to strangle all three of them. Especially on days like today when they turn the Bullpen, where they were supposed to be searching for information on who may have murdered a Marine, into a combat zone with rubber bands and crumpled up paper as their weapons of choice.

Though he had to admit, he did get a chuckle when they noticed him rounding the corner and Tony instantly pretended to be on the phone, McGee began typing on his computer so fast his fingers could fall off, and Ziva buried her head into a case file, her nose so close to the paper you would think she was going blind.

"What do ya got?" he hollered at them as he rounded the bullpen and took his seat at his desk.

"Um…I found…" DiNozzo began before his face lit up and he exclaimed, "Emily!"

"What the hell ya talkin bout, DiNozzo?" he asked before following Tony's gaze to where his daughter and Abby were stepping off the elevator. Yet, he could have sworn Abby had left to pick Emily up not even twenty minutes ago. They couldn't possibly be done lunch already.

"Hey, Em, Abbs," he greeted as the two entered the bullpen. "What happened to lunch?"

"This package was left on our doorstep. It's for you," she said, placing the thick envelope on his desk.

"What's in it?" he asked not seeing what could possibly be so important that they needed to postpone their lunch to bring it to him. And by the look on their faces, he could tell he was not going to like its contents.

"I don't know. I didn't open it?"

"You didn't open it?" he questioned, clearly not seeing the significant of this as she was.

"Well, I thought we were trying to kick my habit of opening all the mail."

"And this couldn't wait till I got home because…?" he probed. He was in the middle of a murder investigation and she knew that. Emily wouldn't be interrupting if she didn't have a damn good reason and her avoidance was not calming his uneasiness about this whole circumstance.

"Because…I recognize the handwriting," she told him and after a while of him gesturing for her to continue she finally did. "It's from Trent Kort."

The sinking feeling twisting around in the pit of his stomach sank that much lower upon hearing that name. Tearing open the envelope, he turned it on its side and dumped its contents on his desk. He could feel Tony, Ziva, and McGee move wordlessly over to stand with Abby and Emily around his desk, but their movement barely registered with him. The only thing that registered was the horror he'd just dumped out on his desk.

Shuffling through the thick pile of photographs, he literally had to fight to keep the bile rising rapidly in his throat. He'd seen combat, witnessed good men and women die right before his eyes, and investigated gruesome crime scenes for a living, but nothing…_nothing_ had ever made him as sick to his stomach as seeing photos taken from afar of his daughter from the time she was a child to now, half of which were taken from the viewfinder of a sniper rifle. In the midst of them all was a note reading:

_Gibbs,_

_I found this on my desk when I arrived this morning. I thought she was safe, but Grenouille may not have been the end of this._

_-Kort_

_Oh and if you don't know who the girl is yet, I suggest you talk to Agent David._

It was like Abby having a stalker all over again. Only ten times worse.

"My God," he heard Tony say, his voice barely even a whisper, but Gibbs was completely speechless. How could he begin to put words to what this felt like, what it felt like to know someone was gunning for his daughter and had been for a long time. It was a position he'd never been in. He knew what it felt like to wake up and hear that his wife and daughter were dead, but he never saw it coming. It felt completely different to _know _his daughter's life might be in danger.

He finally braved a glance up to see her staring down at the pile of photos that literally took up his entire desk. Without sparing a glance at anyone else, he stood up so fast his chair slammed into the back of the cubical wall, echoing loudly in the silence. He needed to get out of here, needed to get some air. While he knew he should stay, form some sort of a plan, be there for his daughter, he just needed some time to process everything.

He could hear his team calling after him. Tim sounded shocked. Ziva sounded angry and confused. Abby was practically whimpering. Though it was Tony who shook him to the core. At first Tony sounded understanding. The second time he called Gibbs he sounded pissed. But the third and final time, he just sounded so desperate. Gibbs knew Tony still blamed himself for Jenny's death and, therefore, keeping Emily safe was as important to Tony as it was to Gibbs.

The one thing he never heard was a single 'Dad' in the mix of things. He knew he hurt her, cut her deeply by leaving like that, but he couldn't turn around and see that empty hollow look in her eyes. Once was enough.

Gibbs vowed after he lost Shannon and Kelly that he would never allow himself to become that close to people again. Sure, he was close to his team and would do anything for them, but the love he had for his long since passed family was something indescribable. That kind of love was something he thought he would never feel again…something he never _wanted_ to feel again. Until he met Jen.

He fought his feelings for Jen tooth and nail day in and day out from the moment he met her, so much so that he drove her away from him. And it was in the moment when he awoke to find her side of the bed cold and empty that he realized just how open he'd been with her, how far he'd allowed her in.

But letting another woman into his life, into his heart, was so very different from letting another child, especially a daughter in. Yet, Emily broke through that the moment he stepped of the elevator and saw her for the first time. She didn't even try, which just made everything so easy with her. She never pushed him and she didn't expect him to let her in as much as he did, but welcomed it anyway.

And yet he failed to protect her, just like he failed Shannon and Kelly. Some crazy lunatic who could be anyone and everyone was gunning for her and he felt as helpless as he did when he buried his first family and then similarly when he buried Jen. What if he had to bury Emily too? He didn't think he would make it through that. And while he would die protecting her if it came down to that, he was haunted by the fact that she might not make it through _his_ death after losing her mother. It had been a long time since he had to consider how his death would affect someone.

Mike warned him this could happen. Ziva warned him Emily was digging into things better left unanswered. Yet, he never confronted her, never talked to her about it, never questioned any of it because he knew what Emily was feeling better than anyone. He'd gone through it with Shannon and Kelly. Gone through it again when he lost Jen. Hell, he would still be going through it if it weren't for the one thing that subsided those desperate feelings: his daughter.

But what if it was his lack of concern over her digging into her mother's past that put them into this situation? While her eyes had housed such horror at Kort's package, she did not appear surprised. Had she known all along what she was getting herself into, what danger she was in?

"I swear I didn't know," a voice, barely above a whisper, called from behind him. She sounded so confident and he desperately wanted to believe that she didn't welcome this hell with open arms, but it wasn't easy. If she'd gotten so deep into this mystery to have a sniper after her, she had to have known or suspected something. "I was a kid, Dad. I could never have known there was some crazy ass dude watching me. And if I had known, I would have told Mike. I wouldn't take chances with people I care about's lives like that," she added after a long while of him remaining silent.

"And what about your life?" he cried angrily, whipping around to finally face her. She gasped and took a few hesitant steps backwards crashing into a table, alerting him to the fact that his feet had somehow carried him to the cafeteria. He knew he should stop there, take a few deep breaths and then discuss this calmly with her, but he was so overwhelmed, so angry that someone could do this and ultimately so afraid. And he let that get the better of them as he continued to rage on, taking it out on her. "In case you didn't notice, those photos weren't of me or Mike or Ziva or Tony or McGee. They were all of you…every single one of them!"

"Look, I could see how this would…" she started to argue back, before stopping herself. She softened her voice, when she continued on, saying, "Dad, I know how your pa….never mind. We don't need to bring that up. Most of those photos are of me growing up. I was the daughter of the NCIS director. Someone probably wanted to threaten my mom…wouldn't be the first time they thought it would be a good idea to go through me."

"Someone wanted to threaten your mother? You're a genius and that's what you're going with?" he spat with a tone he would certainly regret later. "You're mother has been dead for seven years, so tell me how does your theory explain this?" he questioned slamming down a photo he'd taken with him when he ran off on the table hard. "You're not a child in this one. That's you, wearing your school uniform, outside our house. And that right there…" he cried, pointing at the outline of a viewfinder. "Means they had a sniper rifle trained on your head."

"So someone had a gun aimed at my head a hundred plus times…why didn't they take the shot?" she argued back at him, seemingly unfazed by his angry outburst, but her eyes told him a different story. She was just as scared and confused as he was. "Don't you see, Dad? Someone wants you to think I'm in danger. Otherwise why wouldn't they just kill me? Someone's trying to use your past to get to you."

"Well, it worked!" he yelled. "You know the rules and this whole situation falls under rule forty."

"If it seems like someone is out to get you, they are," she repeated to him. "But what about rule thirty-six? If you feel like you're being played, you probably are."

When she said it like that, when she used his rules as logic points, it almost did seem like he was jumping to conclusions too quickly. But he needed to keep her safe. Especially when his gut was screaming at him that this was not a situation to take lightly. And as he started at the photograph on the table, he vowed to do whatever was necessary. Without another word he whipped around and started to head towards Vance's office. He wanted as much protection for his daughter as possible.

"Where are you going?" she cried watching him start to storm off.

"To see Vance. You are going to spend your summer here at NCIS and you are not to leave this building unless I or another agent are available to go with you."

"Dad, this is insane!" She called after him. "Besides Vance will never go for it!"

He could hear the aggravation rising in her voice. She was used to living on her own, depending only on herself. He knew his over protectiveness with Carson amused her, but _this_ protectiveness could destroy the relationship they built thus far. Yet he would risk their relationship, risk her hating for the rest of his life if it kept her safe and alive.

[][][][][]

This was getting out of hand. Frankly out of hand went out the window when a stack of over a hundred photographs of her turned up making her father believe some sniper was after her. Now things were spiraling out of control! Her father had dragged her up here to Vance's office where he was now not only suggesting round the clock security on her, but was also suggesting that she 'intern' in Abby's lab for the summer so that she was out of plain sight. Her only comfort was that there was no possible way Vance would agree to this.

"That sounds reasonable enough." Oh he did not just say that!

"What?" she cried before realizing that she'd said that out loud. She could not believe Vance was agreeing to this! This was insane! Someone was playing them that much was obvious. Only she seemed to be the only one that could see that.

Besides all that, it was summer and they were forbidding her to go outside! Not to mention how mortifying it would be to go on a date with Carson accompanied by an NCIS special agent or worse…her father. But Carson was understanding and she knew no matter how awkward it may be for them, he would never say anything. What she feared the most was if God forbid this last till school, she would be the weird genius girl who needed armed agents following her around everywhere.

"You are the family of an NCIS special agent and it appears that your life is in danger. You are entitled to protection," he explained and while his decision was angering her beyond belief she could almost feel the relief radiating off her father. Super the last thing she needed was her father overlooking his suspicions of Vance because he was agreeing to provide over the top protection that she more than likely did not need. "And as far as working in Abby's lab, we've been trying to find an assistant for Abby since before I became Director and have been unsuccessful. You're smart enough to be in college if you so choose, you've had straight A's in science and math since kindergarten, Abby gets along with you, and as far as I'm aware you have no intension of killing her. I would say you're the idea candidate."

"But, sir…" she starts to protest, but it was clear he was siding with her father on this matter.

"You start tomorrow."

"Yes, sir," she grumbled before storming as politely as possible out of Vance's office.

Only she didn't get very far before a hand grabbed her arm, turning her around to face her father. "Just because you don't start work till tomorrow, does not mean you can go off on your own."

"I've done just fine on my own for the past seven years," she spat instantly regretting it when she saw his face. The hurt displayed in his eyes from having her throw his absence from her life in his face almost broke her…almost. She still wasn't ready to admit that maybe, just maybe, she was wrong and he was right.

His face hardened over quickly at her silence and hers mirrored his when she started firing instructions at her. "You are to remain in this building unless accompanied by either myself, a member of my team, or another agent that _I _assign. You are not allowed outside unless you're getting in or out of a car or unless I approve otherwise. And if you go against these rules even once I will assign someone to escort you around the building. Are we clear?"

"Crystal."

Fire danced across her eyes before she started to storm off in the direction of the elevator, knowing that with the tone of her father's voice the whole bullpen was watching. She did not want this to continue any longer than it needed to, but he obviously didn't share that opinion because he screamed, "Where do you think you're going?"

"To see Ducky! Unless of course you think that this sniper will be able to fire a full metal jacket round through layers of concrete into a windowless room," she yelled back at him before whipping back around and hurrying off to the elevator while her father stormed down the stairs.

All the arguing and rage seemed like the right thing at the time, but once the elevator doors closed and she leaned back against the cool metal frame, closing her eyes and letting everything sink in, she couldn't help but wonder: what had she done?

_2__nd__ A/n: Did anyone else think the scene between Abby and Gibbs at the end of last week's episode was just the cutes thing ever! Okay I digress, sorry it's not the best chapter and sorry to break up the perfect happy family dynamic I had going on there, but what's life (of more importantly a story) without a little tension._

_I hope I didn't make Emily seem too unaffected by the fact that she has a sniper after her, but I wanted to show just how deeply involved she was getting in her mother's case and the fact that she knows more about what's going on than Gibbs and the team do. I also thought that it needed to be shown that even with the whole hectic lifestyle she's had, she's still a teenager with the usual boyfriend troubles and fears of being singled out in school!_

_Thanks for reading & don't forget to review!_


	12. Secrets Pose Problems

_A/N: Hey Guys sorry about my minor writers black tagged along with my computer crashing and deleting what I originally had written. I don't think this chapter is all that great. The original version was better because it included Hiatus, but I just read some of your lovely reviews while I was computer less and wanted to get this out for you and I'm anxious to get on with the present timeline. So please enjoy. PS I haven't taken spanish in 4 or 5 years so if any of it is incorrect I apologize._

_Also I'm starting a story for the show Sanctuary (don't worry I'll still update this one) I have 2 chapters of that written but I'm not going to upload it until I have one more since we all know I don't get to update as frequently as I would like. So if you watch the show you might want to check it out. And if you don't you really should. Its a great show & just completed season4. No word on season 5 so yes this is me trying to get more people to watch in the hopes it won't get cancelled! Ok A/N rant complete. Thanks if you actually read all of it! I wouldn't blame you if you didn't. _

Chapter 12: Secrets Pose Problems

**April 2005**

Her life could never just have two minutes worth of simplicity. No; it would be far too much to ask to simply be able to have a nice lunch and then take the afternoon off to pick her daughter up from school. It appeared fate had other plans in store for her because as she was returning to her car with Stanley when she felt a blow to the back of her neck. Blinking fast, as her legs turned to jelly under the force of her weight, she managed to cling to her blurry reality long enough to hear Stanley scream before her entire world cascaded into complete darkness.

A bump in the road jostled her awake to find herself strapped into a car. Her hand moved instantly to her side, only she found nothing. "Looking for this?" a man's once laughed from bedside her and she turned to come face to face with the barrel of her own gun.

"Seems I misplaced it," she groaned. She'd been in enough hostage situations to know banter often worked wonders. Far better than panicking which only led to death much sooner. "Who…" she started to ask, before she was interrupted by the ringing of her phone.

"Who's Jethro?" the man she vaguely recognized as someone involved in the major drug bust Gibbs' team was currently working on asked her.

"He's an agent at NCIS. Actually he's the agent currently assigned to arrest you I believe. How convenient," she answered honesty. Honesty truly was the best policy in situations such as these and in this case it might even provide her the opportunity to talk to Gibbs and inform him of her situation.

"Answer it."

"Agent Gibbs," she answered slyly. Took him damn long enough to notice she hadn't returned from her lunch with the Senator.

"Director, we've got a major problem here." Okay, so maybe he hadn't realized she was missing. Good to know the location of the Director of NCIS was a top priority for her agents. Made her really confident this situation wouldn't end horribly.

"Sorry to hear that, Jethro. I have quite a serious problem myself," she explained, trying to remain as calm as possible. She may have been in countless of these situations and Jethro may have always come to her rescue, but she wasn't an agent anymore and she and Jethro were hardly the dynamic duo they once were and Jethro certainly didn't have the…_personal_ motivations to go to any lengths to find her anymore. The only other time she felt this alone and helpless was in Cairo when her daughter had been snatched from her and Jenny found herself detesting the raw emotions the similarities were drawing up. They would not make this situation any easier to deal with.

"I'm pretty sure you're gonna want to hear mine first," he said, making it apparently clear - as if it wasn't already - that he hadn't a clue what her situation was.

"I'm not entirely sure that's true."

"You really should be listening to her problem, Jethro," the man said, snatching her phone. Jenny could literally hear Jethro's eyes widen before hardening over as his agent persona took over in full force. Even if they were no longer lovers, she was still the Director of NCIS and her safety was to come above everything else. "You're holding my heroine and my little brother. If I don't get both back in two hours, she dies. I'll call back with the details," he demanded before hanging up. Well, this was sure turning out to be a wonderful afternoon.

[][][][][]

Bus duty. It was the absolute worst part of being a teacher. Hustling kid after kid, all hyped up about the school day being over, onto the appropriate bus of handing them over to their parent or guardian was certainly no picnic. And having to fill in two days in a row made things even worse. After clearing out nearly everyone who was supposed to go home right at three, Ms. Parker glanced around to asses the remaining children, only to be surprised to find a little redhead girl sitting patiently in the grass reading a book far above her age bracket. While the picture was hardly unusual or unwelcome, for everyone knew about young Emily's intellect and the girl was her absolute favorite when it came time to go home because she always waited patiently for her ride, yet despite having someone different come to pick her up nearly everyday, she was usually the first to go home.

Walking over, Ms. Parker sat down in the grass next to Emily, who bookmarked her page and turned to flash her a gracious smile. "So already on to the fourth Harry Potter book I see. That was fast," she began trying to make light conversation.

Emily nodded politely, but didn't elaborate further, which hardly superseded her. Emily was a quiet girl and, while she seemed to have a number of friends during school and was never one to not have a group to play with at recess, Ms. Parker got the impression she kept mostly to herself outside of the classroom. Ms. Swanson told her once, she suspected it had to do with her mother being in a high profile law enforcement job or something like that. She couldn't imagine being in a dangerous job like that and being a single mother. It must make the poor woman sick trying to manage it all. "So who's supposed to be coming to pick you up from school today," she asked, deciding to just beat around the bush.

"My mom, but I know she was having lunch with a Senator and then had a meeting with some budget guy, so she's probably running late. I can just go to extended care," the young girl explained, confirming Ms. Parker's suspicions that Ms. Shepard had quite a bit on her plate.

"That might have to be the plan, but why don't we go inside and have the office call your mother and see how long she thinks she's going to be?" Ms. Parker suggested, standing up and holding her hand out to the girl.

"Okay," Emily agreed, taking her hand.

[][][][][]

Desk duty. Jenny, her best friend and the only person to give a damn about her before she joined NCIS, was kidnapped by some crazed drug dealer trying to negotiate for his brother's, who happened to have died in custody's, release and she was stuck on desk duty. Not only that but the whole entire agency was acting as if she killed a man when she did not. Oh she killed plenty of people in her years and it was understandable how people would be suspicious, but for once in her God damn life, she could say she wasn't responsible for this man's death. Or she could if Ducky would just hurry up with the autopsy and clear her name! Instead he had kicked her out of autopsy and now McGee was giving her pathetic, while sweet, pep talks about understanding how she was feeling, Tony was barely speaking to her, and Gibbs had basically written her off as a murderer. The only person she had yet to see was Abby, not that Abby particularly liked her but it was worth a try. Only she barely got across the bullpen when her phone started ringing, no doubt one of those 'pointless phone calls.' She almost ignored it, but this was Jenny and she would make those damn phone calls if it meant bringing her back and reuniting her with little Emily.

Dashing over to the phone before it could go to voicemail, she answered, "Officer David."

"Ziva David?"

"Yes."

"My name is Ms. Alex Parker. I'm calling from St. mary's Elementary," the woman introduced and Ziva's heart stopped. Oh God! First Jenny and now Emily. Was it possible they had kidnapped her too?

"Emily's school? Has something happened to Emily?" she asked quickly nervously. Ziva did not want Gibbs finding out about his daughter over her kidnapping. Things would end badly and that was the last thing Emily needed with all the other horrors of her life. Emily needed to believe in her father, even if that meant she could never know him.

"Oh God no. Emily's perfectly fine. I was just calling because her mother never came to get her at school and she's not answering any of her phones. And you are Emily's emergency contact, a long with a Donald Mallard, who we haven't been able to reach either." Ziva silently groaned to herself, trying to fight the strong to bang her head against the desk. Today was Jenny's day to pick Emily up from school, something Ziva should have remembered. Jenny had been kidnapped, which left her daughter in a very vunerable position. Ducky was busy performing a critical autopsy, which left Ziva with the responsibility of remembering Emily. But instead her only concern was that she'd been temporarily demoted to desk duty. There was only one problem there were only four people permitted to pick Emily up from school and none of them were available. As she'd already determined, Jenny and Ducky definitely could not, they still had yet to determine what happened to Stanley or if he was even still alive, and she, herself, would never be able to get away without Gibbs finding out. And with the state Gibbs was in with Jenny in a potentially life threatening position, now was certainly not the time to inform him that he had a seven year old daughter he never knew about.

"Um…look, Ms. Parker you said?"

"Yes."

"I need you to listen very carefully. Emily's mother has been kidnapped and…"

"Oh my God!" a shocked voice exclaimed on the other side of the line, interrupting Ziva. So much for 'listen carefully.'

"Ms. Parker…" Ziva began before realizing that talking to this woman would do her little good. "Could you put Emily on the line please?"

"I don't believe that is such a good idea, Officer David. This is hardly a topic for children," the teacher said, her frightened tone turning icy and stern. It took all Ziva's might not to slam the phone down and smash it to tiny bits. Was this elementary school teacher really telling a law enforcement officer and potentially legal guardian of Emily if Jenny did not return how to handle this situation?

"And I do not believe that is your decision to make. I have known Jenny Shepard for Emily's entire life. I know what Jenny would want in this situation," Ziva said in her own stern voice, making it abundantly clear this was no longer up for negotiation.

And whatever she said must have worked because the next thing she heard over the line was a tiny voice saying, "Hi Auntie Ziva"

A shadow of an agent brushed passed her as he headed to the copy machine alerting Ziva to just how public this conversation could be. Switching quickly to spanish in order to try and maintain some level of privacy while also accommodating the fact that Emily was still young and did not know as many languages as she did. "Hi, cutie. Tengo una mala noticia. Odio tener que preocuparse." (I have some bad news. I hate to worry you.)

"Está bien. Sólo dime," Emily said and Ziva could tell the young girl was trying to be brave, all while preparing for the worst. (It's okay. Just tell me.)

Ziva hated this. Hated that she had to worry the poor girl. She had enough in her life to worry about, but Emily deserved to know. And Jenny would want her to know, just in case something did happen to Jenny. Taking a deep breath, Ziva broke down and told her the truth. "Tu mamá no está, pero creo que tenemos una buena oportunidad de encontrarla." (Your mother is missing, but we think we have a good chance at finding her.)

"Falta? Como si estuviera en El Cairo?" (Missing? Like I was in Cairo?)

Ziva's heart stopped at the mention of Cairo. It was a time Ziva hated as much as Jenny. And having it brought up now, when similar stakes were in play did little to boost Ziva's confidence in a happy ending. Ziva really needed to find a way back into the field. She was the only one who know the truth about what was on the line. That there was a risk a little girl might have to grow up without her Mother. When Emily called her name, Ziva realized her silence was unnerving the young girl. Thinking her wording of this very carefully, Ziva explained, "Similar, pero no peligroso como. Agente Gibbs ha hablado con ella por teléfono un par de veces y ella está bien. Que nos da pistas sobre cómo encontrarla y lo haremos, Emily. Te lo prometo." (Similar, but not as dangerous. Agent Gibbs has talked to her on the phone a few times and she is okay. Giving us hints on how to find her and we will, Emily. I promise."

"Sé que lo harás," (I know you will) Emily answered, trying to display confidence that Ziva knew the girl did not have. To Emily nothing in life was certain. A fact most adults learn at some point in their life, and one, in Ziva's opinion, Emily had learned far too young.

Deciding to focus on the present situation instead of dwelling once again on the incident in Cairo, Ziva explained, "Voy a encontrar a alguien para que lo recoja, ya que Ducky y no puedo. No estoy seguro de que lo será, pero voy a llamar. ¿De acuerdo?" (I am going to find someone to pick you up, since Ducky and I cannot. I am not sure who it will be, but I will call you. Okay?)

"De acuerdo, pero ¿qué pasa con Stanley?" (Okay, but what about Stanley?)

Ziva closed her eyes, sighing. This was a question she so desperately hoped the astute child would not ask. How could she explain to the young seven year old that someone she was close to may possibly be dead when she was already frightened for the safety of her mother. "Estamos ... Él es ... él no es availible bien." (We are…He is…he is not available either.) Ziva decided on, hoping to provide a satisfying answer for the girl, while still being vague enough to not alarm her further. A difficult task with such an intelligent child.

"¿Ocurrió algo de Stanley, cuando se llevaron a mi mamá?" Emily asked, reminding Ziva just how difficult it was to differ Emily once the wheels in her head started turning. (Did something happen to Stanley when the took my mom?)

Deciding it best to answer truthfully, Ziva told her, "Es posible. No estamos del todo seguro de lo que le sucedió. Te llamaré pronto, Emily." (Possibly. We are not entirely sure what happened to him. I will call you soon, Emily.)

"Está bien," (All right) Emily agreed, conceding that she would have to say goodbye if Ziva were to find her mother, but she just before hanging up she added, "Te quiero, Auntie Ziva." (I love you, Auntie Ziva)

"Yo también te quiero Emily." (I love you too, Emily) "Oh and remind me to start teaching you Hebrew. It is much more covert," Ziva added before quickly hanging up. She needed to talk to Ducky.

Practically sprinting down to autopsy, taking the stairs for a faster trip, Ziva burst through the doors of Autopsy. "Ziva, what on earth…" he began, trying to get over the shock of not only having here after he just specifically told her she could't be here and the fact that had the doors not been automatic they would be hanging off their hinges.

"Ducky, we have a major problem," Ziva said cutting him off.

"What is it, my dear," he asked confused by her outburst.

"Emily," she said simply.

His eyes widened and Ziva could see that he too was realizing what they over looked. Ducky admittedly simply had more class than she did which prevented him from swearing profusely that they slacked on their responsibility to not only the young girl still waiting at school, but to their friend Jenny who entrusted them to take care of Emily in the event anything happen to her. "She is sitting in the office at her school with one of the teachers. I just spoke to her and told her someone would be there to get her soon. But, Ducky, what are we going to do? You cannot leave because you have an autopsy to perform and it is crucial to finding Jenny and I cannot leave without alerting Gibbs that something suspicious is going on and I do not believe that is an appropriate situation for him to learn he has a daughter."

"No it is not and it is certainly not how Jenny would want things handled."

"We need to find someone else that Jenny trusts. And I want Emily brought back here to NCIS."

"Ziva, I understand your concern, but with the current situation, there will not be very many places we can hide her from Gibbs, if any at all."

"Ducky, all her protection detail is either currently occupied or missing. On this matter, I do not care whether Jenny approves or not. As of this moment I am legally in charge of Emily's safety, which means it is now my call," Ziva said sternly. She would not put Jenny's daughter at risk. And despite everything that happened, despite Jenny's instance that she did not want Gibbs to know at the moment, Ziva knew nothing was more important to Jenny than Emily's safety. She would approve of this decision, of that Ziva was sure.

"Okay," Ducky agreed, knowing he would not be able to change Ziva's mind and also not really wanting to. "Tell Cynthia," he instructed.

"What?" Ziva questioned. Of all the people to choose from, he was picking Jenny's secretary?

"Part of Cynthia's job is to keep all the Director's secrets, especially from Gibbs. It trust she will keep quiet about this and she can direct traffic away from Jennifer's office, preventing people form stumbling upon Emily."

Ziva nodded. It made sense. Jenny trusted Cynthia, otherwise she would never have chosen her to be her assistant. She was also one of the few people that knew the Director had been kidnapped. All Ziva could do was hope that Jenny would agree with their decision.

[][][][][]

She owed Gibbs her life. Owed him everything. Forever indebted to a man she could only love from afar. Yet, this was hardly something new. He had saved her life countless times before, as she had his, but more importantly he had played a part in the creation of the beautiful, perfect carrot top she clutched tightly in her arms as if her life depended on it for nearly an hour. Yes, their lives were destined to be intertwined through the life and love of this child. This child that she knew they would both one day care for more than life itself, even if they despised each other. As hard as it had been to tear herself away from her daughter, Jenny knew she would never be the same if she didn't take some time in autopsy to mourn the loss of her trusted friend. Yet staring at his lifeless body onto of the cold steel slab provided her little hope of moving past this. Her captor had told her Stanley was alive, unconscious and shoved in the trunk of her town car, but alive. To be return to NCIS to learn that in truth he'd taken a bullet for her, shook her to the core. While she may be the director of NCIS now, she started out her career as an agent a damn good one. On principle and instinct, she always expected she would be sacrificing her life to save someone else, not have them die to save her. It virtually killed her to know that Stanley died for her and that he might very well not be the last.

The doors to Autopsy swished open and she knew it had to be him. He didn't seem surprised to see her, as he strolled in wearing that knowing smile that told her he knew exactly what she was thinking. Yet, still she ranted about everything on her mind. And he just stood there listening as she spat out her disgust that Stanley died for her and how she hated the fact that as Director this came with the territory and she was expected to just get used to it. She would not get used to it! No, she would never get used to the possibility of people she cared for dying for her! They seemed to stand there in Autopsy for hours, her spewing off about ow unfair the situation was, how it should be her and not Stanley, and Gibbs simply standing there. "Aren't you going to say anything?" she questioned, annoyed that he hadn't said…well anything1 Normally he would have stopped her, told her none of this was her fault, that Stanley wouldn't want her beating herself up over this. But that was when they were lovers. Now she wasn't even sure what they were.

"Have a drink," he instructed simply, passing her his coffee cup. She rolled her eyes, smiling slightly at just how Jethro this comforting method was.

Any sarcastic retort she had at the ready for him never got the chance to be spoken because Ducky came over with the results of the autopsy and therefore Ziva's fate. Natural Causes. The man died of a brain aneurism. Though to her surprised Gibbs seemed to want to push Ducky into saying that Ziva's punch to the throat may have triggered it. The Doctor didn't budge on his ruling though, resulting in Gibbs frustratingly leaving Autopsy. Though she knew he wasn't going home. No more likely he had other plans in mind and she had a pretty good idea what those plans might include.

"Ducky?" she questioned, knowing Ducky knew her and Jethro so well he would know exactly where her thoughts were leading.

"Yes there is no way he's going to allow you to go home alone after what happened today. Don't fret, my dear. Emily and I will be fine tonight," he assured her. She dreaded the thought of parting with her daughter after the day they both had, but perhaps it would be for the best. Emily would, while she wouldn't admit it, take great pleasure in knowing that Agent Gibbs was watching over her mother tonight. Sometimes she thought Emily worried more about her than she did Emily. Not that that could ever be possible.

[][][][][]

"Slow down my dear, we have time," Ducky hollered, watching as the young child retreated up the stairs at lighting speed. The last thing they all needed was Emily falling down the stairs and breaking something. They had enough excitement for one day. Her laughter filled the halls and he shook his head. Ziva had been telling the girl far too many stores about Jenny and Gibbs and the possibility for a future romance. Tonight was going to be a _long_ night! At least he didn't have to put up with both Emily and Ziva's squeaking over what might be happening with Jenny and Gibbs.

He sat down in the kitchen, knowing Emily would be down in a flash. No doubt the girl was throwing things in her backpack, probably not even paying attention to whether or not she packed everything… or frankly _anything_ she actually needed to sleep over his house. Good thing Emily had her own room in his house. Whatever she forgot there probably would be a backup already at his place. He heard the door slam upstairs. Apparently she felt the need to assure her door was closed as tightly as possible. She took this being a secret thing very seriously for reasons he couldn't fathom. He always thought that once Emily grew older, especially with her high intelligence level, that she would begin to question and protest her mother's insistence that no one know about her. But much to his surprise, she never did. Instead opting to help her mother to insure that people did not find out until the appropriate time.

A flash of red flew by him in the kitchen, alerting him to the fact that she finished packing. She dropped her backpack by Ducky's feet, heading quickly over to the refrigerator. "Emily, my dear, we have plenty of food at my house. We don't need to take some with us," he chuckled rather amused.

"It's not that, Ducky," she corrected pulling papers off the refrigerator rather than opening it. Turning around she held up what looked like her tests from school. "My mom hangs the tests I do well on on the fridge."

"I'm surprised she can fit them all on there." Emily was nothing if not a genius. If there was a test Emily did not do well on, Ducky would be in shock.

"Well, she does have to rotate through them," Emily commented slyly. She may be the most modest child he ever met, but that didn't mean she didn't take pride in her accomplishments. "But that's beside the point. If Agent Gibbs is coming over we need to make me invisible," she instructed.

"I don't really think, Agent Gibbs is going to be paying that much attention."

"Ducky, he's an investigator! He doesn't have to be paying attention to notice these things," she said, grabbing his hand and tugging him towards the hallway. "Come one, Mom hangs some of my artwork up in the study."

[][][][][]

Silence filled the entire car ride home. He insisted he come home with her and make sure she was okay, forcing her to send her daughter who earlier today she didn't know if she would ever see again to stay with her uncle, and yet he hadn't even bothered to say anything the entire way to her house. No 'how are you Jen?' or some sly reference to their sexual past. Nothing. Nothing at all.

He pulled the car silently into her driveway, getting out and coming over to her side. He opened her door, then proceeded to lead her, hand resting gently on her lower back, towards her front door. She had to fight the desperate urge to lean into his side. Though she still, wound up pressed lightly into his side. God, maybe this whole situation had shaken her more than she thought it had. That or he was pulling her closer. She highly doubted the later though. It had taken him far too long for him to realize she went missing. He couldn't possibly care for her on the same level she cared for him. At the door she started fishing through her purse trying to find her key in the abyss of crap piled inside. Finally she pulled it out only to glance up and see Gibbs holding the door open for her, sliding a key into his pocket. He had a key to her townhouse? Oh who was she kidding? Of course Gibbs had a key to her townhouse! He was _Gibbs_, after all.

Brushing passed him, she stepped into the foyer, tossing her briefcase and purse next to the stairs. Normally she would put them away neatly, but she was far too tired for that. Surely being kidnapped and held hostage was a good enough excuse to be messy for one evening. Gibbs raised an eyebrow at the pile, intrigued that she hadn't taken the time to place everything in its perfect place. She just shrugged at him as an answer. Having a kid had taught her to be far less OCD for children never put anything away where it was supposed to go. Accepting her shrug for what it was, he gestured to the stairs and she started to climb them. When he followed, she almost froze. Was he staying the night? She thought for sure he would just sit downstairs for awhile in order to make her feel safe and maybe sleep on the couch if he was too tired.

She reached her bedroom door, but as she toughed the nob, she saw him turn down the hallway towards the guest room and Emily's room. Fearing he might pick the wrong room, she reached out and grabbed his wrist. Her intention was to simply request he take the room on the left, deciding she would tell him she used the other for storage now. But before she knew what was happening, he turned around pressing is body up against hers, hand brushing across her cheek and fingers threading though her short hair, misinterpreting her gesture for an invitation. Any protests she might have had vanished when his lips met hers. It took her a moment to respond, but soon her lips remembered how to move and she found herself pressing her body harder against his trying to make sure there was no space between them.

He ran is tounge along her bottom lip, begging her for entrance which she granted happily. She felt him begin to move them backwards towards her bedroom and then she heard the loud bang of him kicking open the door. Damn. That was going to be difficult to explain to Emily in the morning. Once they crossed the threshold, he slammed the door shut once more and she felt herself being pushed roughly agains the bedroom door. She started to fist his shirt out of his pants resulting in a rough growl from him. He tugged her away from the door discarding her jacket onto the floor. Everything after that happened in such a blur, a frenzy, a desperate need to remind each other that they were alive. Tomorrow he would likely ignore her and she would probably regret it. Tomorrow she would kick herself for going through with this. Tomorrow would no doubt blow any chance she and Jethro had at forming a real relationship. But right now, tonight she didn't care. Tonight she was turning her common sense off. Tonight she was living in the moment. To hell with Tomorrow


	13. Just The Beginning

_A/N: This chapter is much darker than I intended it to be. There is a small bit at the end that brings up some of the torture that actually happened to Emily when she was in Cairo, which wasn't in my original planning but it worked to propel the story forward. It's only a small bit, but if that is not your thing, I offer a word of caution that you may want to stop reading when the team leaves NCIS to work on their case. As always thank you so much for all your reviews as well as those that have signed up for story alerts or put this on their favorite story list. All of it is very appreciated and I thank you. Keep them coming! : ) and Enjoy._

Chapter Thirteen: Just The Beginning

He detested when they called him to a meeting. Normally they met on their own, sending him encrypted messages with instructions if they needed anything from him. He didn't belong to the group. He was a pawn in their sick little games. But there was no escaping. Even if they had not threatened to harm his wife and children, all these men held high places of power. They virtually controlled everything. There was little he could do to avoid them. And this time they were pissed at him, which was never a good thing. Never.

"Why on Earth would you allow her to work at NCIS?" a woman he didn't know well practically screamed at him. He thought she might be a politician of sorts. And with her question, shouts and jeers of agreement filled the room. He took a step back, not that that would help if they decided to rid off him. Now he understood why Director Shepard worked so hard to keep her daughter a secret from the world. Dangerous people had been after them. He almost wished he'd done the same.

Clay Jarvis held up his hand to stop the protesting crowed. They reluctantly settled down, though a few continued to veer at him. "Now Lyon," Clay started slowly, as if speaking to a young child. "I'm sure you didn't intend to cause trouble, but by allowing the girl to work at NCIS, you are therefore putting her in protective custody. I thought you understood what we discussed last time."

"I did," Vance said firmly. He had understood perfectly what they intended to. "You sent Gibbs a package of photos, showing him that we've been stalking his daughter since she was a child. Hoping for a window of opportunity to snatch her. The photos themselves didn't provide the necessary rift between father and daughter, but let me tell you, you all would have been cheering if you saw the fight that spiraled out of control after I agreed to Gibbs terms. You wanted a window. I gave you one," He spat at them. He would not stand here and be chastised by a bunch of corrupt politicians, cops and ex-military officers that refused to get off their asses and do their own dirty work. If he was going to roll in the mud for them, he damn well would insure they appreciated his effort.

The room erupted in angry shouts again, until one voice rang through loud and commanding. "ENOUGH!" The room instantly fell silent. "Regardless of whether you all approve of his methods, we have a window of opportunity. And knowing Gibbs, he isn't going to get much sleep fighting with his daughter. He'll be anxious to repair their relationship and the moment that happens our window disappears. If it hasn't already"

"What do you recommend?" Vance probed. He knew Gibbs well and the man had a point. Gibbs would not allow this rift between him and Emily to persist for any length in time. They would be the dynamic father and daughter duo again in no time. If they wanted to succeed in capturing Emily, they needed to act fast.

"I think we need to give Gibbs a case that hits a little too close to home."

[][][][][]

She refused to speak to him for a week. He never thought someone could hold out that long. After all they lived under the same roof and worked in the same building, on the same team. Yet she continued to ignore him and he didn't know how much longer he would last. He loved his daughter more than life itself and he hated fighting with her. So he decided it had to end. He had gone overboard and she hadn't gone far enough. There must be some middle ground they could both agree on. But how to broach the subject with someone giving him the silent treatment, he hadn't a clue. So he sat observing the rise and fall of her chest as she resided in what he hoped was a peaceful dream land. He always loved to watch Kelly sleeping. Took comfort in being able to physically see she was alive, just he could with Emily now.

He knew he crossed some sort of invisible line. Tried to forcibly crack down a barrier she kept up. His daughter spent her life in hiding, constantly looking over her shoulder, not being allowed to trust even those she cared of most. And now, just when she finally thought herself free of that, he asked it of her again. But more importantly, _he _was the one asking this time. He, a man she'd barely known for more than two months. Not her mother whom she spent every single day with for nine years. Not the woman she'd known and trusted since birth.

In there lied the problem, the reason for her blown up reaction. She was still learning how to trust him, just as he was working on learning to trust her.

Everything was a process with them. None of this came naturally. They didn't have the luxury of growing up together and learning from one another. That first moment setting his eyes on his daughter still brought out an irrational, unconditional love, stemming from virtually nowhere. But he hadn't been staring at a newborn, still developing her brain and her personality. His daughter had been a sixteen year old girl, fully set in her amazing, yet remarkably stubborn, personality. And his daughter never had that instant moment of trust, of being a young child without a care in the world because no matter what her father would take care of her. To her the only thing she had to go on was he provided half her DNA. He didn't help shape her and guide her into the woman she'd become and she hadn't helped shape him either. In a way they were strangers, trying to form a natural bond in an unnatural way. It was work. It was a process. It wasn't handed to them. But they would get there. He had no doubt they would get there. And they would be stronger for it. Their bond would mean more than anyone else's because of it.

A small groan startled him out of his thoughts and for a moment he froze, watching her eyes start to flutter open and closed adjusting to the early light of morning. He hadn't planned to stay this long. Hadn't planned on being here when she woke up. Her eyes searched the room, finally settling on him. She slowly and groggily proper herself up against her pillow, her hair sticking out of her ponytail in odd places. She cocked her head to the side, raising an eyebrow, curiously at him, but didn't say anything for a moment. Then when she started to open her mouth, he decided he needed to explain himself and cut her off before she even started.

"Don't be mad," he whispered softly, knowing his being here was probably doing little to repair their relationship.

To his surprise, she smiled a sweet, tired smile. "I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at myself."

"What?" he asked confused. He could understand her being angry with him, but why would she be mad at herself?

"For those awful things I said to you!" she exclaimed as if it should be obvious. "You didn't deserve that. None of it was true and I never meant any of it."

"Well, I did over react a little bit," he said trying to shift half the blame back on him. It didn't rest all on her shoulders and she shouldn't feel the need to carry it all.

"No. You didn't," she admitted softly. "I just don't see why I didn't listen to you in the first place."

And by the way her eyebrows furrowed and she gazed off into the distance, he could tell she truly didn't know. But more so her genius IQ was trying to rationalize it out and it was failing her. He chuckled to himself, as he observed her. "Emily, you were born with an inquisitive mind. You're a natural scientist and a natural investigator. You're brain works in facts. And you need every bit of information, need to explore every possible scenario and exclude them out in order for something to be a fact. Otherwise it's just speculative. There's nothing wrong with that." While she may not believe it to be a good enough excuse, he did.

She nodded understandingly, shuffling over in the bed to make room. He slid in next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulder, allowing her to curl up next to him. "Dad?"

"Yea, sweetheart?"

"Why were you watching me sleep?"

"It's what parents do. Didn't you mother watch you sleep?" He asked, trying to defer the situation from his real reason for being her. They just started to make up and he wasn't quite ready to ruin that yet.

"Sure…but I was eight and it was cute."

He sighed. She had a fair point. While he loved his daughter, watching teenager sleeping was not exactly what he would define as cute. They sat in silence for a while as she waited for him to pluck up the courage to say it. Finally he took a deep breath and asked _the_ question. "What happened in Cairo, Emily?"

She froze. He could literally feel her whole body tense up. A defense mechanism against her past. "You really don't want to know." Her voice sounded scratchy to him as if she had to strain to simply get those few words out. Now he knew he couldn't turn back now. He had to see this through. Had to once and for all finally know.

"Please…I _need_ to know. I need to know what happened when I couldn't be there to protect you." For a long time she said nothing and he took a step back in his insistence to give her the space she needed. Neither Mike nor Ziva nor Ducky knew the truth about what happened with La Grenouille from what he could tell. He had a funny feeling even Jen hadn't heard the entire story. And he sat, her father of only two months bordering on three, asking her to relive one of the darkest moments of her seemingly consistently tragic life. The more he thought about it the more he questioned how he could possibly rationalize asking this of her when she hadn't even trusted the people closet to her for the past sixteen years. But he _needed_ to know. And he realized then, there was no rationalization for it. No logic. Pure instinct. The what, when, where, why and how was irrelevant. Only the who mattered. His daughter. Every fiber of his being wanted to protect the girl wrapped in his arms, but there had been a point in time - actually several points - where he hadn't been there to protect her and she'd been hurt. As a father and as a man, he needed to know about the times he failed. Even if the failure had been through no fault of his own. Things were different with him than with any of the others. They _wanted _to know, where as he needed to.

"It really wasn't as bad as everyone makes it seem like," she finally squeaked out.

"Did he hurt you?" he asked, trying desperately to keep his voice soft and encouraging, rather than indicate how badly he wished the man was still alive so he strangle the life out of him slowly and painfully with his bare hands. But she didn't need to know that. It wouldn't help. She needed encouragement, careful probing to get the entire story out.

She looked thoughtful for a moment and he could see she was trying to bring memories she buried deep inside her memory to the foreground. "The Frog? No. His men did, but then he would come and tell them to knock it off. That I was a child and a guest. A guest my ass now that I look back on it. Tied up in a ten by ten cement room. But I didn't see it like that back then. And for a while I actually _liked_ him."

"You were just a child, Emily. You can't use what you know now to blame yourself for what you didn't know then." If anyone knew that to be true, it was him. How many times had he looked back on Shannon and Kelly's deaths with all the knowledge he had of NCIS and their killer Pedro Hernandez picking a part each minor thing he could have done differently? Same with Jen. There wasn't a day that went by that he didn't think how if he knew she had a daughter - that they had a daughter - he would have been there at Decker's funeral with her. He wouldn't have lost her like Ziva and Tony. "Why am I getting the impression that there's more to it than just that?" He questioned at her prolonged silence. He had a strange feeling she was holding something back.

"It's never easy to turn someone. To change them," she whispered, a haunted look in her eye.

His heart stopped. "What did you just say?" He questioned, though he knew for certain he heard her correctly.

He heard those words before. Those exact words. On a hot Mexican summer's day, trapped in an elaborate villa paid for through drugs and through blood. _It's never easy to turn someone. To change them. A federal agent in DC? You have value. I don't want your death. I want your life. _The words spun circles around his head. But she couldn't possibly know that. She hadn't been there. She didn't have any connection to the Reynosa Cartel. No, that was his, Shannon and Kelly's nightmare. Not Jen and Emily's. And yet there was no possible way she could have just happened to use those exact words.

"The fight on Mike's beach five years ago wasn't about what you think it was about." And there lied his connection. Emily lived in Mexico at the time of firefight between the Reynosa Cartel and Colonel Bell's men. How could he have forgotten that? God, was there a point in her life when she hadn't been in danger? "It was over me."

"What?" he asked, taken aback. He didn't understand how that could be possible or even what either of those groups would want with her. Sure there it may have been possible that Paloma Reynosa wished to use Emily to convince him to do her bidding. But, she already had enough people between his father, Mike, and his team. Not to mention, if Paloma knew of Emily, she must have known that he'd never met her. Yet, he could see how Paloma might find having Emily in her possession might be useful. Would have been another weapon to add to her arsenal. But Colonel Bell's men? What use would she serve to them? And more importantly, how did this relate to their situation now. "What does this have to do with La Grenouille?"

"The Frog was a small fish in a big pond. A pond so big he was probably drowning in it."

"Are you saying the Reynosa Cartel was somehow involved with him."

"At one point, yes. I believe so anyway, but they broke away long before the incident on Mike's beach. Colonel Bell's men, however, were still in cahoots with whatever group The Frog originally worked for. The fight on the beach was the Reynosa Cartel trying to beat out this other group for possession of me. No doubt to use as leverage over you when she had you captured in Mexico. Only none of them knew they died in a pointless attempt."

"What do you mean?"

"I wasn't even in Mexico that week. I was in DC visiting Abby, Ziva and Ducky," she said with a twinge of regret laced in her voice. He thought he understood why though. If what she said was true, then her living in Mexico put Mike, Layla, and Amira in danger. "I'm the reason Mike lost his finger. I'm the reason for Mom dying. I'm the reason for all of this," she added, burying her face in the crook of his shoulder. He could hear the sniffles as she fought back tears and it broke his heart. She may look like her mother, but she had so much of him buried inside her. Including a tendency to blame everything bad in the world on herself.

"Hey," he whispered, rubbing his hand up and down her shoulder comfortingly. "Look at me," he ordered softly, as he lifted her chin up so her eyes met his. "That's not true. And I don't think Mike would ever want you to blame yourself for that. He loves you as much as the rest of us."

"I know that. Sometimes its just hard to remember that."

"I can imagine feeling as if the entire world is against you doesn't help." It was a fickle thing. When Kelly was born, he, like most parents, wanted nothing more than to give his daughter a better life than he had. But with each passing day since Emily came into his life, he was beginning to realize his childhood hadn't been as bad as he thought. He couldn't imagine being kidnapped, stalked, hunted, and part of some twisted conspiracy all before his seventeenth birthday. Suddenly his fights in school and his fights with his father seemed so trivial in comparison. It made him want to call his dad. But first he needed to focus on doing his own job as a father.

His daughter kept burying all of this - the pain, the torture, and the blame - deep down inside herself. She was trying to be brave. Trying to protect him as much as herself. But it was destructive and unhealthy. If anyone knew that, it was him. He'd done so for years until she came into his life and helped him learn to live again. He needed her to know she didn't need to mask all her emotions. That she didn't need to hid behind a veil and put up a strong front. "It's okay to be afraid you know," he told her.

"I'm not afraid to die." Her words chilled him to the bones. And he feared she actually meant them. In her short life, she'd been faced with the possibility of death on more than one occasion. He could see how she may have needed to come to terms with that possibility. To form some sort of peace with death. But he wasn't ready for that. Death took everything from him. And continued to threaten to take the only thing he had left in his life. He made no peaceful agreement with death. He would never welcome it with acceptance if it came to take Emily from him or even if it came to take him away from her.

"Well, I'm afraid," he admitted to her quietly, pulling her even tighter to his side. "I'm afraid for you to die. And I'm afraid of leaving you alone in life. Bravery is not everything, Emily. Sometimes its okay to admit you're scared."

He felt her nod against his side and he was content to stay like that, knowing she was safe by her side. But it didn't turn out to be as relaxing as he hoped it would. Instead his mind was spinning, trying to assess everything she just said, everything he knew himself, and any underlying hints he could remember from Jen's hunt for Grenouille. And it left him wondering more. Desperate for anything that might help him solve this. "Everyone you mentioned thus far is dead. Are you aware of who might be after you now."

She looked thoughtful for a while, as if searching her mind for anyone who still living who might be involved in this. "No," she finally answered. "Not yet, anyway. I've found its always much easier to uncover the secrets of the dead than the living."

"I agree. The living can lie and hide. Whereas the dead are no longer around to protect themselves," he said, trying hard to mask his disappointment. If she just provided him with the slightest clue. The tiniest bit of information that might be relevant to their current situation. He and his team might be able to end this _before_ it spun out of control. A genius and determined she may be, but she was still just sixteen. He couldn't possibly expect her to have all the answers. Especially with a lot of this information most likely being classified.

And yet…Mike mentioned her having obtained more information on the situation than he thought even Jen had. If that were true, even with Grenouille dead, there may still be some hidden clues inside. "Emily, I need the information you collected on Grenouille and whoever else you suspect might have been involved with him," he whispered softly but firmly. Her body turned to stone in his arms at his words and somehow he just knew he hit the mark. She knew something. Perhaps a lot more than she was letting on.

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She froze. Going completely ridged. "I don't know what you're talking about," she bluffed, knowing full well he would never believe her.

"The information Mike mentioned you managed to collect over the years. Things apparently even you mother didn't know. It wasn't with your stuff when we unpacked things to set up your room, so I assume you kept it with you. I understand your reasoning for that, but I need it now," he told her, voice leaving little room for debate.

He couldn't possibly be asking her this. Couldn't possibly know she had information. More information than she wanted. Abby was right. While it was never her intention, never her desire, she 'd turned into her mother. Grew an obsession into digging up the past. Desperate to find every possibly connection, every possible explanation, for everything that happened from the moment her mother met The Frog till now. And information she found. Information that was apparently going to get her killed. If only she knew exactly what the information she had meant and which part of it had this mystery group scared enough to want her dead.

She knew her father could help. Probably in a large way. Plus he would no doubt get the team involved. And all of them together would probably make more progress in a few days or weeks than she made in years. But she barely knew him. Barely knew any of them, with the exception of Abby, Ducky and of course Ziva. While she loved her father deeply and felt as if she knew him, in all honesty she didn't really know him at all. As much as she loved him, she couldn't yet trust him. She knew it was hypocritical, having asked him to trust her not that long ago on the matter of Carson when she didn't trust him yet. She loved him unconditionally, just as she had her mother, but she didn't _know_ him the way she knew her mother.

Two months and a half. That was the accumulation of time from the moment she first met him till now. Two and a half months in the past almost seventeen years. She'd been betrayed by people who knew her far longer.

"Dad…" she started cautiously, pulling slightly out of his embrace. "I can't," she told him, wishing he could just understand. She knew he needed to know. Felt an overwhelming need to protect her in a way he had failed to do with Shannon, Kelly, and her mother. But she needed him to understand that she needed to protect herself too. Maybe it wouldn't be him. In all likely hood it wouldn't be. She somehow knew that he would never betray her like others had before. But someone could. Some member of the team could accidentally leek or leave out in the open seemingly innocent and unhelpful information without even being aware.

"Can't or won't," he shot back, putting her on the defensive. It is a matter of can't in her mind, but he is unlikely to see it that way. It is not as if she did not want to show him the information. She would value the entire teams help. But most especially she would value her fathers. He knew her mother far longer and far better than she ever did. She was only nine when she died. A highly intelligent nine year old, but still only a child. She could never even hope to know her as well as her father did. But there are other factors to take into account. Factors her father won't consider. Vance, for instance, posed a big threat. One she wasn't quite ready to disclose until she knew more about his alleged involvement. "Emily, I can't help you if you don't trust me," he said, softening his voice.

She glances about the room for a while, trying to come up with some way out of this. But there is none. Regardless of whether she liked it or not, she needed his help. She has come about as far as she can go on her own. She needed his NCIS connections. Besides she didn't have to give him _all_ the information just yet. She could provide him what she new to be concrete and unlikely to pose any threat if there were some sort of leak. She could provide the rest later on after she had time to assess how this new strategy would play out. "Okay," she nodded reluctantly, before adding a few precautionary conditions. "But we go through it here at the house. The team can help, but I prefer it stay in the family."

"Fine by me. I don't exactly want to risk this information getting out to any unwanted passersby either," he agreed, relaxing her slightly.

Sliding to the edge of the bed and removing her necklace, she went through her usual routine of unlocking the box hidden away in her drawer. She disappeared into the closet, then reappeared dragging a rather large square trunk with her and placing it in front of the bed. She smiled slightly as his gaze fell upon the trunk and his eyes widened with surprise. "All of that is information on Grenouille?"

"Grenouille and various associates," she confirmed, loving that she finally rendered him completely speechless.

She watched him shake his shock off, trying hard not to burst out laughing. "Looks like we're gonna need to clear out the basement," he finally said smiling. At that she couldn't hold it in any longer, and her laugher filled the room. Soon he joined into, grabbing her around the waist and ruffing up her hair before pulling her into a tight hug. As she wrapped her hands around him, she knew that their arguments were behind them and that somehow they would be okay.

[][][][][]

"This is growing ridiculous. Gibbs is going to kill us if we do not something soon."

"Ziva has a point, Tony. Ever since that package from Kort showed up, Gibbs has been going tougher on us. He won't be happy to hear that we have nothing." The probies had a point, he had to admit. While the tension between Gibbs and Emily seemed to have been lifted and things were growing back to normal aside from having to keep an eye on Emily at all times, Gibbs was still on edge. Like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Not that Tony could blame him. He to couldn't help wonder what these unknown suspects' next move might be. But he knew they would have a hard time putting it into action with Gibbs, him and the rest of the gang all looking out for her. Jenny died on his watch. He would not allow the same thing to happen to her daughter. His sister.

If none of that were bad enough, they had to pull of all the cases out there the one case involving the rape and murder of redhead collage students, either the daughters of Marines or Marines themselves, at Georgetown University. Tony knew all Gibbs saw when he looked at those crime scene photos was Emily. Some of them could have been her sisters in appearance. Everything was piling on top of each other, and Gibbs was cracking down on them harder than ever. All of NCIS had been treading water around him for weeks.

"And how do you suppose we come up with something, McProbie? We've reached a dead end. Abby and Emily have thus far come up dry. We have nothing to go on."

They all sat there for a while lost in thought, until McGee finally piped up. "We could try and bait the killer," he suggested.

"Yes! Yes," Ziva exclaimed, snapping her fingers as her eyes lit up with an idea. "Like that time you guys dressed me up like a geek for that dating thing McGee likes."

"I only said I considered going one time!" McGee interjected.

"Once is enough Probie. You should be ashamed of yourself," Tony teased, laughing to himself as he observed McGee roll his eyes and groan in frustration. Sobering himself, he begun to consider their suggestion. They reached what seemed to be a standstill in the case. They got as far as they could with the forensic evidence they collected thus far. Without any suspects or a new witness that might be able to point them in the right direction, they had nowhere to go from here. Yet Gibbs was far from the type to call a case cold, even if the trail was frozen over with ice. If they could draw the killer out by dangling someone of similar appearance to the victims in front of him, they might stand a chance at bringing this family some justice and save their own asses from their virtually intolerable boss these days. Only problem was Tony couldn't think of a single agent that fit the profile the killer targeted. "I like the idea, McGee, but where are we going to find a young redhead with NCIS clearance, who is relatively up to date on this case, looks like they could actually be in college, and…."

"Hey guys! How's the case going?" a small voice drew his attention to Emily who was entering the bullpen looking chipper in her lab coat. Glancing her up and down, his eyes widened as he processed everything he just said about the victim's profiles. His eyes flew over to Ziva, then over to McGee, and then back to Ziva. Both of whom seemed to be thinking along the same lines as he was. Maybe it wouldn't be so hard to find someone after all.

"Oh no! Do not event think about it Tony. Gibbs would never approve," Ziva pointed out, brining his almost high spirits crashing down. She raised a valid argument. There was no way in hell Gibbs would ever allow them to use Emily in an undercover investigation to draw out a rapist and a murderer.

"What wouldn't I approve of, Agent David?" Gibbs disconcerting voice bellowed throughout he bullpen, offering Tony a headslap for the hell of it and a kiss on the cheek for his daughter.

"Hey Boss! McGee was just telling us about an idea he had to help solve our case," Tony offered up, inwardly smiling as McGee's eyes widened worse than a deer in headlights.

"Well, let's here it McGee?" Gibbs ordered.

"I…well…I was just saying how it might be beneficial to send someone similar to the victims undercover," McGee began to explain, before slyly adding with a smirk in Tony's direction, "But the only person Tony could come up with is probably not a good choice to go with."

"Why not?" Gibbs questioned, glancing between all of them before his eyes rested on Emily and Tony could tell he understood their point. "Oh. Right." Tony watched him look over at Emily then up at the crime scene photo Tony accidentally left up on the plasma before he settled back on Emily sighing. "Emily, how well do you know your way around Georgetown?'

"Aunt Ziva!" Emily cried aggravated and Tony got the strange feeling he was missing something.

"I did not tell him anything," Ziva swore and now Tony knew he was missing something. "I think he was talking about the case."

"Wait a second, what did you think I was talking about," Gibbs interrupted.

Emily's shoulders slumped and Tony could tell she was mad at herself for bringing up a subject she could have avoided. "I'm in a summer bridge program at Georgetown. It's for kids like me who are capable of taking college level classes. We take classes at Georgetown and we can transfer them over once we're accepted into college I ordinarily would be taken them on campus, but given out current situation I managed to convince them to allow me to take this summer's classes online."

"So you know the campus well. That's great!" Tony exclaimed, hoping to defer yet another explosive argument between the two. Gibbs and Emily had only just made peace with each other and reached some sort of deal on what was enough protection for her and what was overkill. The last thing he thought the two needed was another divider between them. They would all need to be providing a strong united force if they were to keep anything from happening to Emily.

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs snapped, but something in Tony's expression must have told Gibbs to just let this one go for now, because his anger subsided and he reluctantly admitted, "You're right." Before Tony could even process they fact that Gibbs just admitted he was wrong and Tony was right, Gibbs was on his feet again, hollering, "Gear Up!"

The whole team jumped at once, racing to gather everything they would need, while Gibbs tugged Emily gently off to the alcove on the opposite side of the stairs. With Ziva taking care of Emily's wardrobe and McGee gathering up earwigs and other various gadgets Tony couldn't determine the name of to save his life, it left him with little to do other than grab his badge and service weapon. Out of curiosity and admittedly a little fear of another ripple in what would otherwise be considered a perfect father-daughter relationship, Tony crept around the corner close enough to hear their conversation while staying out of sight.

"Emily," Gibbs said seriously, though his voice didn't seem to express any anger. "Why didn't you want me to know about the Bridge Program at Georgetown?"

There was a small pause and Tony took what he believed to be a rather accurate guess that Emily was sighing and glancing away guiltily. "Because I didn't want you to feel bad that I couldn't take my courses on campus due to this whole psychotic sniper thing."

Tony smiled and couldn't help but let out a breathless chuckle. Her fathers possible guilt over what she might miss out on _would_ be what would concern Emily the most out of everything in this entire situation.

"The fact that you're takin college classes…God I'm so proud of ya!" Gibbs said so softly Tony almost missed it. He didn't hear anything further on the matter though. As interesting as it was to see Gibbs' softer side, Tony respected that it was a side reserved exclusively for Emily and Abby and returned to the bullpen to help Ziva and McGee in anyway he could.

[][][][][]

She found it hard to believe any criminal could be so stupid as to not see this as a trap from a mile away. She might as well be wearing a sign that said "WORKING WITH THE POLICE." Instead Ziva dressed her up in a tight short jean skirt and light cotton blouse unbuttoned straight down to her bra line in order to show the dog tags she wore to symbolize her fake status as an off duty Marine. If someone actually fell for this, she would officially lose her faith in the intelligence of humanity.

An agitated grumbling in her ear made it difficult for her to prevent herself from bursting out in laughter. She settled regretfully on simply letting out a small chuckle that her father was still steaming _not_ over the fact that she was out on a college campus trying to lure a rapist and murderer, but over the fact that she was showing too much skin while going about it. "Now, Emily we have agents all over this campus, so if anyone approaches you one of us will be there before anything can happen to you," Tony reminded her for what must have been the hundredth time. She knew he had the best intentions, trying to reassure her that he wouldn't let anything bad happen to her. But of all the things in her life that she might need that assurance on, this wasn't one of them. A single attacker she could handle with all the training Ziva conducted with her since she was five years old. A sniper who could fire a bullet into her skull from hundreds of meters away was a completely different story.

Despite chalking her father's reaction up to paranoia in an effort to try and keep him calm, she wasn't nearly as confident in her words as she sounded. Something she hadn't realized too much until now. This was the first time in a long while she spent an expended period of time outdoors and she found herself more than a little unnerved. She kept glancing over her shoulder at every rooftop, any area of elevation really that could provide a clean shot, which was undoubtedly what kept prompting Tony's assurances that she needn't worry so much. If only he could understand she had a lot more to worry about than he realized. She knew too much. Knew too much about things she shouldn't. Things about people who had the means to kill her or worse. Sure most of them were dead, but she knew they weren't alone in their transgressions. And if she'd been able to uncover the skeletons buried in the closets of The Frog, The Reynosa Cartel, and many many others, she could easily understand how associates of theirs might be concerned that she might unbury secrets of theirs as well.

A hand on her arm startled her out of her fearful musing. Her heartbeat sped up about a mile a minute and adrenaline started pumping through her veins. With her instincts and training kicking in she slammed her elbow back into the crook of her attackers shoulder blade. An aggravated grunt emerged from him and his grip on her arm loosened slightly, providing her enough leverage to spin around and thrust the palm of her and into the bottom of his nose. Before she could hear the satisfying crack knowing she'd broken it, a second man darted out to grab her. Dodging, just barely, his lunge to grab her around her waist sent him stumbling towards the ground. Distracted by her second attacker, she didn't see the first shake off the brunt of his injury until he had her arms pinned behind her back. In a desperate attempt for this not to become a hostage situation, know her father wouldn't be far behind, she slammed her high heel into his foot as hard as she could. He let out a rather girly shriek, which allowed her to shake herself out of his hold. When he came towards her again, she gripped his stretched out wrist hard, flipping him over her shoulder, and sending him slamming to the ground hard.

A shadow out of the corner of her eye, sent her spinning round, arms poised in the air ready to take on anyone else who might be working with the other two. She let out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding when she saw Tony and her father running towards her, with Ziva and McGee not far behind. Almost instantly, her father pulled her into his strong arms which wrapped around her so hard she almost thought he might be Abby in disguise. She vaguely heard him order Ziva and McGee to take care of the two bastards lying on the ground nursing their wounds, but his voice and the rest of the world was muffled by his comforting presents. She knew two months from now when school started up again, he might not be around every corner to rush in and save her. Knew she might not even live to see two months from now. But for now, for this moment, having her father here with her was enough to make her feel like she could take on the world and live to tell the tale.

Pulling back slightly so she could watch everything happening around them, her father kept a steady arm around her shoulders while she tried hard not to laugh at Tony's bewildered face staring at the two rather large men she managed to take down. "Remind me not to get you mad," he laughed and she felt all the tension flow right out of her body as she joined in.

"She has an assassin as a godmother, DiNozzo. What'd yea expect?" A voice from beside her said. She glanced over surprised, but exceptionally happy to see the small smile tugging at her father's lips.

As Ziva and McGee hauled the two men up off the ground and begun to read them their rights, she got her first good look at what had previously been only blurs. Every bone in her body froze as her eyes rested on theirs and brief flashes of a small, darkened room flashed before her eyes. Her hands balled up into fists, digging her nails in so hard she started to bleed. To this day she could still feel the rope burning her wrists as she tried to wiggle free. Could still feel the cold cement floor against her bare arms and her cheek, when the guards would seek entertainment during their long shifts by kicking her chair over. Could still taste her own blood from the streams at the corner of her mouth made by their large hands whenever she would start to drift off from exhaustion. But most importantly she could still remember their eyes beading into hers, as they took turns, gripping her face and forcing her to look right at them when they slipped their hand under her dress. And she was looking into the same to pairs of eyes right now.

"You Bastards!" she screamed, tearing herself out of her father's comforting grip. At four years old, she may not have understood what those men were doing to her, but she certainly did now. And she wanted to strangle the life out of them with her bare hands for it.

She had to give Tony and her father credit, it only took them a brief moment to shake off their surprise and each lunge to grip an arm to prevent her from charging at the offenders. She fought hard against them, screaming furiously when her father ordered Ziva and McGee to get them out of here. "LET GO OF ME!" she cried when them men were out of her sight. They let go instantly as if she were on fire likely out of surprise at the sheer agony in her voice. She stumbled away from them, her chest heaving up and down rapidly as tears began to soak her eyes. She rested a hand on a nearby tree, trying desperately to catch her breath, before collapsing to her knees and burying her in her hands willing the images of those two weeks playing on repeat to disappear once more.

"Emily," her father's worried voice called as he rested a concerned hand on her shoulder.

"Don't touch me," she growled out between her tears. He retracted his hand quickly, glancing over at Tony whose face full of concern and confusion mirrored his own.

"Emily?" He tried again and she could literally hear the fear laced in his voice.

Lifting her face up slightly to look at him, she saw how at a loss he was. He desperately wanted to help, but he hadn't a clue as to why she was reacting this way. Regret flooded through her and she started to feel guilty about screaming at him, but as another film reel of Cairo began to flash through her mind again, she hardened over once more. "NO…no you don't understand. You don't understand what they did to me."

"What? What did they do?" he asked in desperation.

"They…They…" she tried, but instead she just burst into further tears, completely overcome by the memories. This time however, she allowed him to pull her into his arms and she tightened her grip on him, soaking his jacket with her tears. He ran his hand soothingly up and down her back whispering over and over again that everything would be okay. But she knew everything would not be okay. This was only the beginning.

[][][][][]

He found her in the basement a few days later. She hadn't come out of her room since he managed to convince her that they should go home. She barely ate anything he brought up to her and she hadn't spoken to him other than brief 'thank yous' and 'i'm not hungrys.' Never in his life could he remember being as worried as he had been when he saw Emily collapse to her knees in obvious emotional pain a few days earlier. He knew how to handle physical pain, physical injuries, but emotional ones? He couldn't be more of a fish out of water. One of the many reasons he'd been divorced three times. He felt helpless. Even more so after his conversation with Ziva earlier in the day.

_"Gibbs," Ziva's voice broke through his fearful haze and he realized he hadn't even heard her come in. He couldn't even remember how long he'd been sitting at the bottom of the stairs. Emily was locked away in her room and he kept replaying everything that happened over and over in his mind trying to figure out how things went so horribly wrong. One moment they were all laughing and the next Emily was screaming. "We need to talk," she told him, gesturing for him to follow her outdoors. Standing, he glanced up the stairs then back at Ziva, nodding. Something in her solemn manor told him this was a conversation best not overheard by Emily's ears. _

_ He felt a warm breeze brush his cheek when he stepped outside, hinting at a sense of calm he certainly didn't feel. He watched Ziva fidget with her hands and pace around a bit, making him agitated inside. Finally she turned around to face him, and being as direct as ever, she just came out with it. "Jenny never knew this, but the doctors in Cairo…they found vague evidence of what might possibly have been sexual assault."_

_ His throat went dry at those words and he swore he had to have misheard her. This just couldn't be true. Couldn't be what happened to his daughter. His Emily. "What?" _

_ "Not full out rape and it was nothing they could prove for sure, but they had their suspicions."_

_ "And you never told Jen?" That didn't seem like Ziva. Ziva and Jen had been closer than he thought anyone to be. Close enough that Ziva kept every secret Jen had and it didn't seem right to him that she would keep something _from_ Jen. Especially something like this. Which lead him to even further confusion of how Ziva knew if Jen didn't._

_ "Jenny was in a coma. Ducky flew over to help me with Emily. In talking to Jenny and Emily's doctor we all agreed that it would be best for Jenny's recovery if Ducky and I told her when we felt the time was right."_

_ "Only you didn't." When Ziva shook her head and turned away guiltily, he felt the anger well up inside him. How dare she think she knew what was best for his family? How dare she hide such vital information about his daughter from both Jen and him? He who considered himself Ziva's father. "How could you possibly think that hiding the fact that our four year old daughter may have been sexually assaulted from her mother?" he spat, fury radiating off him. He felt hurt. He felt betrayed. _

_ Ziva spun around, her face riddled with so much pent up anger he took a few steps backwards. "I thought your daughter had been through enough and having her mother run of on some psychotic murdering spree would not help her anyway."_

_ He sat down on the stairs sighing. Ziva was right. Jen wouldn't have thought things through. She would have dove right into things. Hunting and stalking every single one of Grenouille associates until they were all dead. She would have destroyed her life and their daughter's along with it. Instead of being able to grow up and move past such a horrible trauma, her mother's crusade would have forced her to relive it everyday. Ziva's way had been better for Emily in the long run. Something he had to keep reminding himself of because every fiber of his being was telling him to do the same. To run off and make every single one of them pay. Two months ago it would be exactly the kind of thing he would do. Turn in his badge and gun and run off to settle his own wars alone. But two months ago he hadn't had another life depending on him. Needing his protection, his support, and his love. And that knowledge was what was keeping him planted right where he was. _

_ As if sensing his thoughts, Ziva told him, "She needs you, Gibbs. Tony and I will handle the interrogations. We will not allow anything to slip through the grout."_

_ He smiled a small smile at that, as he corrected, "It's slip through the cracks, Ziva."_

_ "Noted," she laughed and something told him she may have messed up her American Euthemism on purpose. "I should head back."_

_ He nodded. He trusted them, especially Tony, to get this interrogation done right. Tony cared for Emily almost as much as Gibbs did. _

_ He watched her walk a ways to her car, before he hollered, "Do you think this whole thing is over, Ziva?" He couldn't help but wonder with their prior history with Emily if they might be the ones threatening her life. Ziva had been in his daughter's life the longest. If anyone's opinion mattered it was hers._

_ She turned around, a sorrowful expression on her face bringing his hopeful spirits crashing down. "I think that this was too easy, Gibbs." Yea so did he, but for once he wished it could be._

The basement looked like a war room. Like NCIS had been before all the technological upgrades. After they transferred _The Jenny_ from the basement to the backyard, they brought in white boards, setting up timelines, suspect lists, etc. Trying to connect anything and everything Emily had in that box. They hadn't made much headway thus far. Mostly their time had been spent on Emily catching him up on some of what she uncovered and yet he felt like he barely knew anything he didn't before. He knew she was having a hard time adjusting to their new tell all relationship and would no doubt have even more trouble doing so after this past week, but he was just so desperate to help. To settle this once and for all so they could finally live a happy normal life as a family.

He stopped a little ways behind her to give her some space. Over her shoulder he could see she was staring at the photos of two men, younger in appearance, but still so obviously the assailants they arrested earlier. "Ziva tell you?" she questioned, her voice cracking a little.

He cautiously took that as an invitation to take a few steps forward and stand beside her. "She did," he confessed, knowing he would never be able to hide his new found knowledge from her.

She nodded, lost in her own thoughts for a short while. Eventually she broke the silence, simply whispering, "Don't."

"Don't what?" There was so much she could be referring to. Don't touch her. Don't push her. Don't treat her like a victim. Like a child. He knew she had plenty of time to deal with what happened and that up until a few days ago the sixteen year old girl he knew had come to the decision to move on and be happy with her life. She let him into her life and she also let a boyfriend into her life. He had enough experience with victims in similar situations as his daughter to know what a huge step that was.

"Don't run off on some Jenny Shepard crusade," she said, surprising him. The amusement in her voice made him smile, even before she turned to him with a slight sparkle in her eye.

"I'm still here, aren't I?" He joked, before telling her Ziva and Tony would be handling the interrogation much to _her _surprise. "I take it you're doing okay?" He asked cautiously keeping the light tone in his voice.

She smiled softly at him giving him a slight nod. "I did my psychological therapy and I came to terms with what happened a while ago. I just needed a few days to remember that."

It was comforting to hear that, but it also made him realize he hadn't reached that point yet. He only found out about what happened earlier today. He hadn't had twelve years to deal with it and it seemed the knowledge of the horrors that happened to his daughter when he couldn't be there to protect her kept piling up. "Good. But I need you to know. I didn't do my psychological therapy and I haven't come to terms with what happened yet."

"I know."

"Just remember, everything bad that happens to you happens to me too, so never forget that you can always come and talk to me," he said, his arms folding around her small frame.

"Thanks, Dad," she whispered, wrapping her arms securely around him. Glancing around the room, he saw their pasts mingling together to form their future. He didn't know what the future would bring, but as he stared at the faces of Paloma Reynosa, La Grenouille, and so many others, knowing they were all in allegiance with one another, he was faced with the unsettling feeling that this was only just the beginning. The beginning of a war he wasn't entirely confident they could win.


	14. Life Within Her Grasp

_A/N: Short Chapter, but while Hiatus was a great two parter, the only real important thing for this story was how Abby met Emily. Plus, I don't know about you guys, but the present storyline chapters are my favorite so I'm excited to move on to that. _

_ Thank you all again for all you wonderful reviews, story alerts, and story favorites. They are all greatly appreciated. I've recently got a lot of people asking if Jenny is still alive and I love the enthusiasm! Considering whether she's alive or not is one of the ultimate questions the story is going to answer later on, all I can say is you'll just have to read and find out. Yes, I know that's cruel, but, while I can't say she is definitely alive, I will say that it is a definite possibility! So enjoy the chapter and don't forget to review : )_

Chapter Fourteen: Life within Her Grasp

**May 2005**

When he applied for a job at NCIS, he certainly never expected that this would be his assignment. Granted stalking about the shadows of a house, eyes sweeping about the room for any signs of movement in any and all directions, trying to keep his back against the wall to avoid surprise from behind was exactly how he pictured his career on the federal level would be. But it was his current choice of weaponry and his current target that he could never have imagined when he'd been promoted to replace Stanley as the head of security for the Director of NCIS. Despite the grandiose images his mind conjured up when he first heard of NCIS, after the past month, he wouldn't change the fact that none of that came true for a second. No, the way thing turned out was far more exciting to him and insured that he made it home to see his beautiful wife every night.

A pattering of tiny feet to his left captured his attention and he instantly pulled his trigger at the giggling blur diving behind the couch to avoid his dart. Damn she was good! Crouching behind a chair, he waited silently, ears straining to hear even the tiniest of sounds. "We have you surrounded. Come out with your hands up," he ordered, amusement laced in his voice.

"I think you may find that is inaccurate." His heart leaped in his chest when he realized her voice was a lot closer than across the room behind the couch. Slowly turning around, hands raised in surrender, he came face to face with the bud of a NERF gun being wielded by the most skillful, intelligent, and devious seven year old he'd ever met. Crap! Outsmarted by the young carrot top…again. He was beginning to sense a pattern here.

"Sorry, Melvin," she said, a wicked smile weaving its way across her lips, as she fired the dart right into his chest.

He chuckled at his failure, picking himself up of the ground and unsticking the dart from his shirt. "Good game, squirt," he laughed, messing up her hair, knowing she absolutely hated when he did that.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, attempting to flatten her hair back down.

"You're such a girl," he teased, chuckling at the expression of complete outrage that formed on her face.

Her eyebrows furrowed together and her mouth gaped open, staring at him in disbelief. "You did not just go there!" He couldn't help the fit of laughter that overcame him from her reaction. She was by far the best, most amusing and most challenging assignment he'd ever had.

While he spent a large portion of his working hours around the Director and her daughter, it was only on a rare occasion he got babysitting duty. Tonight being one of them. The Director had to attend a dinner at the White House and Ziva was on assignment with Gibbs and the team, so he'd volunteered to watch Emily for the night. And he was loving every minute of it. That was until he felt a soft poke in his chest breaking him out of his laughter.

Glancing down, he saw a second dart sticking to his shirt. About to object to the fact that she "shot" him merely for giving her a hard time, he got interrupted by the ringing of his cell phone. "We'll talk about this later," he joked before flipping open his cell phone and greeting, "Good evening, Director."

He smiled as the young girl's face lit up when she realized it was her mother on the other side of the phone call. "Is that Mom? Can I talk to her?" she shrieked, jumping up to try and steal the phone out of his hand.

Jumping out of the way of his reach, his smile fell, however, as he processed exactly what Director Shepard was telling him. Agent Gibbs was in an explosion and was in critical condition at Bethesda. More than that, though. The little girl in front of him might loose her father before every having the opportunity to meet him. "I am going to be staying at the hospital tonight and I would like Emily brought here too," she instructed him.

"Of course, Director. We will be over as soon as possible."

"Thank you, Melvin. I appreciate everything you've done tonight," she said, quickly hanging up before he could tell her it was not a problem at all. No doubt she had a lot on her plate dealing with Agent Gibbs' doctors as well as checking up on the mission he and his team had been on. He didn't know much about it, but he did know it dealt with a potential terrorist attack. And that threat didn't end simply because Agent Gibbs was in the hospital.

He couldn't blame her for being concerned about Agent Gibbs, though. Or for wanting to keep Emily close while Agent Gibbs fought for his life. Despite their sincere efforts to try and hide it, nearly everyone in NCIS was aware of the suspected history between the two of them. They were the biggest betting pool going. One he was unfortunately not allowed to enter, being privileged to the knowledge of just how deep their old partnership went. And he would have won a heck of a lot of money too.

"Where are we going, Melvin?" a small quivering voice asked, drawing him out of his thoughts. He glanced down to see a worried expression housed on the normally smiling face of his favorite seven year old. He should have suspected she would pick up on his concern. She was smart enough to realize that if her mother called and they were going somewhere that something bad was going on. Especially when her mother was supposed to be at dinner at the White House.

"Agent Gibbs has been in an accident," he started to explain, trying to provide a diplomatic answer that gave enough information to satisfy Emily's curiosity while keeping it still appropriate enough for a young child. "You're mother has to stay with him at the hospital tonight and she would like you to be there as well. Ziva and Ducky are still working."

"Okay," she nodded, stifling a rather large yawn. It was getting late and rather close to her bedtime.

"Let's go gather your things. Don't forget your uniform for school tomorrow and you're mother will need a change of clothes too," he explained, mentally making a checklist of everything they needed to pack, as they made their way upstairs.

She fell asleep in the car, just as he suspected. By the time they got everything packed and were one their way it was well passed her bedtime on a average day. He was beginning to wonder if perhaps it would have been a better idea if he watched her for the night at home. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized that this was the girl's father they were talking about. And even if she didn't know him, if he had a daughter, he would want her there. When they pulled into the parking lot of the ER, he slung the duffle bag over his shoulder before unbuckling the young girl and carefully picking her up in his arms. She groaned slightly and her eyes flickered, but she quickly adjusted her head in the crook of his neck and was back asleep before he even shut the car door. He never before realized how heavy a seven year old could be, until he had to carry her all the way across the parking lot and right up to the desk in the ER. "Can I help you?" the nurse at the desk asked him, smiling slightly at the sleeping girl in his arms.

"Ah, yes. I'm looking for a Director Jennifer Shepard of NCIS," he told her before realizing they would be more familiar with the patient that his visitors. "She should be with an NCIS Agent who was admitted tonight. Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs."

"One second." He watched her type a few things into the computer. No doubt searching for his room number. "Agent Gibbs is in Trauma One. No one but family is allowed back there. Are you sure this Director Shepard is with him and not in the waiting room?"

"Oh she is most definitely with him," he reassured her, knowing there was no way in hell that Director Shepard wouldn't have pulled ever favor she could to fight her way into the Trauma Center with Agent Gibbs. "But if it helps, I'm only here to deliver a family member of theirs."

"And who might that be?" she questioned skeptically. They were probably used to people trying to pass off as family to get into see a patient. Lucky for him, he would actually be telling the truth.

"Their daughter," he explained, nodding towards the girl fast asleep in his arms. Without another word, he heard the doors behind him open, and with a quick thank you he hurried off to find the Director.

[][][][][]

She couldn't believe this was happening. She had to be having a nightmare. Gibbs couldn't be in the hospital. Couldn't have been in an explosion. This was _Gibbs_ for God sakes! The man didn't go to a hospital or a doctor unless he was dying and she refused to except that he was dying! Not before he met his daughter. Not before they fixed things between them. The last time they'd been alone together, they'd made love repeatedly throughout the night. Caught up in a heat of passion from her being kidnapped and almost dying. She needed it to feel alive, to be absolutely sure that her rescue hadn't been a dream and he'd needed to be reassured that she was alive too. And sex was the only way they knew how. But as she had expected, when the sunlight crept through her window shade, she'd rolled over to find a warm empty crumple of sheets where he once was. With no smell of coffee in the air and no sound of the shower running, she knew he was gone. Since then, they hadn't acknowledged one another outside of a professional capacity and they always did so in the presence of someone else. For if they'd been alone, their might have been a repeat performance or they might have said those three little words that he never got around to saying in Paris. Only somewhere in the back of their minds, they both knew that neither of them were ready for that quite yet. But now, she realized, they might never get the chance.

Next to her Abby was babbling away, terrified for her surrogate father's life. She hadn't planned on Abby showing up when she called Melvin, though if she'd taken the time to think things through she would have realized that of course Abby would show up! She knew she should be concerned. Should probably have called Melvin told him there was a change of plans and ask if could he watch Emily for the night. Abby was exceptionally close to Gibbs and if he pulled through this, Jenny feared Abby wouldn't be able to keep her secret. But for once Jenny didn't care. Emily was already on her way. Gibbs was in the hospital, just barely hanging on to his last shred of life. And she selfishly wanted to have her daughter here with her to hold and take comfort from her presence. If that meant that their whole secret blew up in a pit of flames, then so be it.

Glance down to the end of the hallway, she breathed a sigh of content relief at the sight of Melvin carrying her daughter, nestled comfortably in his arms. She watched Emily lift her tired head a bit and a smile form on the young girls lips at the sight of her mother. Despite her obvious exhaustion, Emily still managed to wiggle out of Melvin's arms and onto the ground. "Mommy," she cried, running tiredly over and into her mother's arms.

Melvin hustled quickly behind and she offered him a grateful smile, accepting the duffle bag he passed her. "She's already in her pajamas and everything she needs for school tomorrow is in there. We also packed a change of clothes for you."

"Thank you, Melvin," she said, sighing peacefully, content to have her daughter starting to snore in her arms.

"I'll come by here in the morning to pick Emily up for school," he told her before hurrying off, knowing his place wasn't here.

"Emily, sweetheart?" Jenny probed her daughter gently. Emily lifted her head groggily, her eyes just opening a tiny bit at the sound of her mother's voice. "This is Abby. She's a good friend of mine," Jenny introduced, pointing in the direction of the young goth, who'd been gaping at the scene before her since Melvin came into view.

"Hi, Abby," her tired voice managed to squeak out before her head flopped back down onto Jenny shoulder and buried itself in her neck.

"Abby this is my daughter, Emily," Jenny finished with a laugh. She had to remember to ask Melvin what on Earth he did to wear Emily out. There were times when she thought her daughter must have been kidnapped and replaced with the Energizer Bunny. Sometimes, she would just keep going and going. No stop to her boat loads of energy in sight.

After a moment of standing there in complete shock, Abby's face lit up into a ginormous grin only becoming of her and her alone. "Director! I didn't know you had a daughter! She's so precious!" Abby squealed with delight, shuffling a bit to get a closer look at the sleeping child.

Jenny knew that soon she would have to sit down with Abby and swear her to secrecy, but for the moment she was happy to put it off. Abby was closer to Gibbs than anyone she knew. The girl's loyalty to the man ran thicker than blood. Something Jenny knew she had little hope of competing with. Especially when she would have to finally break down and tell Abby the juicy details of her affair with Gibbs and how for the moment everyone involved was forbidden to tell him of Emily's existence. Abby would freak. Abby would protest. But Abby would also ultimately grudgingly abide. While she would be adamant that Gibbs needed to know of his daughter, Jenny also knew that Abby wasn't the type of person to over step her boundaries and just come out and tell a man that he had a child. No, Abby was more likely to pester her day in and day out to tell Gibbs the truth. And that Jenny could handle.

Noticing Abby's gaze shift from the happy admiration of Jenny's little carrot top to the man hooked up to nearly a dozen machines lying on the opposite side of the hospital room glass, Jenny shook off her fears of the future for the moment to focus on her fears of the present. A stray tear threatened to fall from Abby's eye and it nearly broke her heart. The young girl was so very fragile for someone who worked in law enforcement and over the past year, Jenny developed almost a maternal sense of protection for her. She wanted nothing more than to be able to make Abby's pain go away and never return. But she knew she couldn't do that. No one could do that. Only Gibbs waking up from his coma could accomplish that. But Jenny could comfort her and help her through all this. "Oh, Abby," she sighed sweetly, drawing the woman close to her. Taking some comfort herself in holding her two children close, Jenny ran her hand soothingly up and down Abby's back, finally managing the courage to reassure her, "He'll be okay, Abby. He's Gibbs, so he just has to be."

Later on, she sat awake in a chair by his bedside. The nursing staff had been kind enough to retrieve a spare hospital bed for Abby and Emily to curl up in. Whether it was their exhaustion or they simply accepted the future importance they would have in one another's lives, neither of her girls seemed to mind sharing. Instead simply snuggling up on the small bed together. It was a sweet moment to watch and one she knew Jethro would give anything to see. His team was his family as much as Emily was and she knew he would be happy to know everyone was coming together as one unit for him. Perhaps one day she would get to freely share this moment with him without leaving out detail relating to Emily.

The staff had offered to try and hunt down another bed for her, but she told them not to trouble themselves. She would be fine. Here beside Jethro, her hand holding tight to his as if that would keep his life firmly in his body was where she wanted to be. Glancing over once more at her…_their_ girls dreaming away - hopefully of something much more peaceful than their present reality - she signed, closing her hand that much tighter around the man she loved with all her heart. "Jethro," she whispered softly. Someone once told her that coma patients could occasionally still hear what people said to them and she hoped and prayed that this might be one of those circumstances. "Jethro…I don't know if you can hear me and if you can you're probably rolling your eyes thinking how incredibly foolish I'm being talking to you while you're unconscious. But nevertheless, if you can hear me, then by God Jethro you need to come out of this. Hell even if my words are just bouncing off the walls and you can't hear a damn thing, you still need to come out of this. There's….there's still so much I need to tell you. Like how much I love you. How much I regret ever leaving your side. About how scared I was back then of the feeling that I would follow you anywhere and do anything you asked. I thought I had to run, Jethro. I thought it was the only way. I felt like I was loosing myself. I didn't understand love. Not our kind of love at least. Not the strong, unbreakable bonds that made me feel as if I wasn't complete whenever you were away. That I was somehow inadequate without you in my life. I wanted to be a strong independent woman who didn't need a man to complete her life. And back then I felt the way I was feeling about you made me somehow less than what I wanted to be. But now I know, I was just too young, too inexperienced in love to know that you made me so much more than I could have ever dreamed of being. Even now, with our love-hate friendship, you still push me to the limits and stretch the very core of who I am to new heights. I…I can't live without you, Jethro.

"And then there's our daughter. Her name's Emily, Jethro. Dear, sweet Emily. Not to be confused with Fornel's daughter. Honestly I wish you'd have written me a letter about that one before I picked a name for our little girl. She's the brightest little seven year old you could ever meet, which makes me wonder how on Earth we're her parents," Jenny laughed, tears streaming down her face. She should be telling him all this when - not _if_ - he woke up, but she was a coward. Always had been. Never could confront him in person about the major things, so she continued on, hoping that a part of him might remember this one sided conversation deep in the back of his mind. "She has your eyes, Jethro and both of our stubbiness. Drives me up the wall some times, the similarities between the two of you. There are times I'll get off the phone with her and you come barging into my office and I can hardly tell the difference between you two. She's going to make an amazing NCIS agent someday, Jethro. She's has your clever, sharp eye for noticing detail and she definitely inherited your gut. I didn't even know it was possible to inherit that but she did! She's everything we could have dreamed her to be and more.

"She's here you know, Jethro. Sleeping over in the corner with Abby, who's become something of a second daughter to both of us. Along with Tony, Ziva, and McGee. I know they would give anything to be here with you too, Jethro, but they're out there determined to do their jobs. Find out who did this to you and do whatever it takes to prevent whatever attack you were to find out about tonight because they all know that's exactly what you would want them to do. Which is why you need to wake up, Jethro. You have so so many people in this world who love you and would be devastated to loose you. Emily…she looks so forward to the day she can finally meet you with baited breath, Jethro and I long for and dream of the day when we can all finally be a true, official family. Not just the three of us, but your team, Ducky, and Palmer as well. Maybe I'll even get to meet you father one day. You always promised to take me to Stillwater. You said there was something you needed to tell me. A painful secret you wanted to share with only me, but that we needed to be there for you to tell me.

"There are so many things we never got around to doing. So many things we never got to say to each other. That's why you need to come back to me, Jethro. Back to your daughters and your sons. To all of us." There was so much more she wanted to say, but her tears finally managed to consume her. And all she could do was hold onto his hand, believing that as long as she continued to hold onto him, he wouldn't…he couldn't slip away


	15. It's Always About Love

_A/N Finally regained my interest in this story enough to get over massive writers block. So I'm jumbling up a few things as far as the series goes. Since Mike died in the series and he's obviously still alive in this story. So the port to port killer hasn't happened yet. And as far as this chapter goes the episode Psych Out just happened. For anyone who's not a fan of Dr. Ryan, have no fear as she, like Hollis earlier in the story, won't be around much other than this chapter. I'm all about the Jibbs and so is the future of this story. I simply needed Ryan's connections at the DOD which you'll understand by the end of the chapter. Hope you enjoy and like I said don't worry there is a boat load of Jibbs coming really really soon! They are one of my OTPs after all! As always reviews are appreciated!_

Chapter Fifteen: It's always about love

Considering it was summer, she felt her schedule was even more hectic than during the school year. Between working at NCIS, being captain of her team in the summer softball league, the softball clinics she and the other captains ran, and trying to solve her own potential kidnapping or murder case, she barely had time to breathe. Quickly tying her long auburn hair up as she hurried down the stairs, she smiled when she heard Carson's voice holler, "Shepard" from the other room.

A bark followed suit and she watched in amusement from the doorway, as her puppy came galloping into the living room, tackling her boyfriend onto the couch to lick his face. "No. Not you, Shepard," Carson laughed, pushing the dog back to the ground so he could pat him. "I was looking for your owner. Honestly whoever thought it was a good idea to name you Shepard really complicated things for me."

Her laughter broke through his rant and he glanced over to where she stood observing the scene before her. She watched a content smile plaster itself on his face as she started towards him. "I'll make sure to pass your criticism onto Tony."

Rolling his eyes, he let out a laugh, standing to place a quick kiss on her cheek. "Should have known DiNozzo would be behind it."

"Isn't he always."

"I'm sorry I can't come to your game tonight," he apologized for what must have been the fiftieth time that afternoon.

"Will you relax. Your mother's award banquet is way more important than a softball game," she reminded him, as she walked him arm and arm to the door. "Tell her I said congratulations."

"Will do," he nodded, pulling her close. He brushed a stray hair behind her ear and gently placed a slow, tantalizing kiss to her lips. "Knock 'em dead," he said, wishing her luck before heading out the door.

Closing the door behind him, she leaned back against it, twirling a stray strand of hair. No doubt with a loopy grin present on her face. Her feeling of content lasted about a minute before she remembered she still had to get ready for her game before her Dad got home. He was trusting her in allowing her a day with Carson free of people looking over her shoulder. A month had passed without any further life threatening incidents, so she'd managed to convince him to agree to one day, but she would be damned if she wasn't ready on time.

Hurrying out to the garage, she grabbed her bag, dragging the heavy thing lazily back into the house. Emptying out all the old Gatorade bottles into the trash, she quickly replaced them with fresh, cold ones. Her father had been bugging her for weeks to clean out her bag. Running back upstairs to her room, she rummaged through her drawers for a pair of softball socks and she just managed to get her socks and cleats on when she heard the doorbell ring.

_Carson_, she thought rolling her eyes. He was always forgetting something. Then again, she wasn't much better. Hustling down the stairs once more, she flung the door open, laughing, "What'd you forget this time, Carson?"

It was only after the words left her mouth that she realized it wasn't Carson standing at her door, but and older woman about her father's age. "Uh…sorry about that. I thought you were someone else."

The woman stared at her for a moment, as if confused. "Sorry. I think I may be…" she started, stepping back to glance at the front of the house.

"Are you looking for my Dad? Agent Gibbs?" she asked the woman, sensing she knew exactly what house she was at. Her confusion seemed more focused on not expecting a teenager to answer the door. This wasn't the first time this happened. Even after living here for nearly four months, she was still amazed by how many people she still had yet to meet. Price she paid for being a secret her whole life.

"Ah…yes. I am." The woman appeared to relax slightly that at least she had the correct house, so Emily offered her a polite smile and stepped back to invite her inside.

"He should be home soon," Emily told her, gesturing for her to make herself comfortable in the living room. "I'm Emily, by the way. Emily Shepard."

"Dr. Samantha Ryan," the woman introduced in kind. Emily's smile fell at that. She recalled her father mentioning a Dr. Ryan. He seemed almost smitten with her by the tone his voice took when he talked about her. Something she'd been thrilled to hear considering it was kind of her fault his previous relationship failed.

The last time her father mentioned Dr. Ryan, he said she walked out on him not sure whether she was ready for a relationship just yet. She'd been rather disappointed to hear that. Especially when she caught a glimpse of defeat cloud his features before he managed to mask everything fully. And something told her that finding out Gibbs had a daughter he failed to mention might not go over well coming from anyone but her Dad. The last thing she wanted was to be the reason another one of her father's promising relationships fell through the cracks.

She wanted her father to be happy and from what she knew, this Dr. Ryan seemed like a good choice. They were two broken people trying to find some happiness in the world. It was a romance waiting to happen. And if the Doc was here looking for her Dad then that meant she was considering seeing where a relationship might lead them and Emily did not want to do anything to jeopardize that.

"Oh….I'm just gonna go check on how long he's going to be," she said, awkwardly pointing to the other room. Slipping out without another word, she quickly called Ziva to ask for a ride to her game, knowing her father would need time to talk to Dr. Ryan about…things.

With Ziva's promise that she and Tony would be there in ten minutes, she quickly dialed her father's cell. "Yea. Gibbs," he answered with his trademark greeting.

"Hey, Dad!" she responded, trying hard to sound casual, but ultimately failing. "Are you almost home?" she asked, but the creak of the front door answered her question before he did.

[][][][][]

He saw her hurrying into the hallway before he even had the chance to answer her. Hanging up his cell phone, he returned it to its holster on his waist and started to remove his suit jacket. It was damn hot out! "I told you I would be home in time to take you. It's only a half hour drive this time. We'll be there in plenty of time," he reassured her, noting that she was already dressed and her bag was packed and waiting by the door. All he needed to do was throw a pair of shorts on and they could go.

"Ah…it's actually not about the game," she corrected, nervously nodding towards the living room.

Confused, he slowly stalked towards the opening to get a better view when suddenly everything clicked. "Hey, Doc," he greeted, a soft smile grazing his lips despite himself. To say he was surprised to see her would be an understatement. The last time they spoke, she told him she wasn't ready to stop running and he worried that she'd been sincere. Only here she was. In his living room. Sitting casually and expectantly on his couch. Expectantly?

Turning to his right, following Samantha's gaze to Emily it dawned on him just what she was waiting for. An explanation. Though for a moment he found himself distracted by the gleam in his daughter's eye. Which reminded him, he had to bring her to her softball game and if they didn't leave soon, she would be late. Then again, if he left now, he might blow his one and only chance with the Doc. Torn between two very important woman to him, he turned to his daughter, "Emily…"

"Ziva and Tony are on their way to pick me up," she stated simply, as if she had everything under control.

"What?" he started to ask, but was interrupted by a honk coming from outside.

"That must be them. Ducky and Palmer I believe are already on their way and McGee and Abby are finishing everything up at NCIS and heading out soon. And don't worry about being late. The first half hour is just practice anyway."

"O-kay. Um…do you have everything you need?" He questioned, feeling as if he needed to contribute somehow since he would miss out on driving her and warming her up. "Your bat? Glove? Plenty of fluids?"

"Check. Check. And check," she announced happily, grabbing her bag off the ground and slinging it over her shoulder.

"What about your batting gloves?"

"Relax, Dad. I have everything under control. You just focus on you for like ten minutes. I have a feeling you've got a lot of explaining to do," she laughed, gesturing over to Ryan, who was watching the scene with amusement and loving Gibbs' discomfort at her presence. Emily was right. He did have a lot of explaining ahead of him and the best he could hope for was at the end of the day the Doc would finally stop running. Finally see they were both running from the same thing. Both had children to worry about. Both had haunted pasts. But more importantly, see that they both wanted the same things out of life and from each other.

"Okay," he finally conceded. "But make sure DiNozzo brought your helmet that you left at his place after practice Wednesday. And if he didn't, let me know and I'll swing by his place to grab it on my way to the game."

"I will, but Ziva said she would make sure he brought it or he'd suffer serious consequences, so I think we can rest assure he has it."

He chuckled at that. There wasn't a person alive he knew of that would ever risk Ziva's wrath. Least of all Tony. "You're probably right," he laughed, but at another honk he reluctantly admitted she had to go and he had to face the music. "I'll see you in a bit, sweetheart."

"Bye, Dad," she said, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek to mask her whispering "make this work" in his ear, before taking off out the door, hollering "love you" over her shoulder.

Watching the door slam closed behind her, he was suddenly struck by the silence in the house. Cautiously turning around slowly, he braced himself for the worst. Being married four times taught him just what it was like to be on the opposing end of a woman's scorn. Diane alone had been enough to scar him for life.

However, what he wasn't prepared for was to turn around and find her sitting casually with a soft grin housed on her face. "You know it's actually nice seeing you in a paternal role. Almost makes a part of me believe there might be hope for us." While her voice rung with a bit of hostility, she still sounded sincere in her words. And if there might be a chance for them to work things through, he would tread lightly.

Holding his hands up in surrender, he thought it best to just come right out with it. "For the record, I wasn't trying to hide her from you. She was down in Mexico when we first met." And it was true. Mike had invited her down for a week for an annual fiesta held at Carlos' Cantina. With everything going on and knowing how much she missed Mike, he opted to let her go. Plus Mike could hold his own and had kept her safe for seven years. There was no one he trusted more.

"Visiting her mother?" she asked and he almost smirked at the surge of jealousy seeming to take over the Doc despite her hard attempts to hide it. He watched her amused, as she tried to shrug it off and cover it by saying, "I just happened to noticed she had a different last name."

"Actually she was visiting her uncle of sorts. She'd been living with him up until recently since she was nine." She raised an eyebrow at that curiously. She may not have known him long, but she knew him well enough to know he would never allow someone else to raise his child on his own accord. But she managed to keep her comments to herself and allow him to continue. "Her mother is dead."

Her face fell and compassion took over instantly. "Oh, Gibbs," she whispered, patting the spot next to her on the couch. He moved to join her, draping an arm round her shoulders. He felt her glance upward and open and close her mouth several times. Finally she spoke, "May I ask…"

"Her name was Jenny Shepard," he answered her unspoken question, not wanting her to feel like she had to tiptoe around him.

Her eyes widened at that in surprise which he found endearing. It took a lot to catch her off guard. "The former director of NCIS?"

"You knew her?" He glanced down at her curiously. He couldn't remember Jen ever mentioning Psych Ops. Then again, he didn't know half the people who went to those political dinners with her. For all he knew about Jenny since they left Paris, she and the Doc could have been the best of friends.

"Not personally. But I knew of her. The first female director was kind of a big thing for us women in law enforcement." They sat there for a few moments before he felt her sigh against him. "I'm sorry, Gibbs."

"You're not mad?"

"How can I be mad?" she laughed, surprising him. "It's not as if I told you about Parker. You learned that on your own."

She had a point, but a small part of him still felt as if he could have found the time to tell her. Found a way to let her know she wasn't the only one who had a child to worry about. Maybe if he had the past few weeks wouldn't have been wasted apart.

But he was done living in the past. He'd done that for far too long and he had little to show for it. "Hey," he exclaimed, placing a hand on her knee. "Do you want to go to a softball game?"

She sat up, pulling away from him in shock. "Really?" she asked, sounding almost hopeful.

"Really," he assured her. He was okay with bringing her into Emily's life and Emily had already made her approval clear. Coming back from Mexico with a tan and a new found interest in pestering him about when she would get to meet this infamous director of Psych Ops who had sparked her father's interest.

Standing up, he held out his hand to help her off the couch. When she accepted his hand, he pulled her up, noticing something silver on the end table next to the couch. "Crap!" he exclaimed, snatching it up. "She forgot her handcuffs. I swear to God she is the most forgetful child on the planet," he explained, placing a hand on the small of her back and guiding her out to the car.

"Handcuffs? I'll admit I'm not an expert, but I don't recall handcuffs being a part of the sport."

"It's a bracelet," he chuckled, handing it to her as he opened her door for her. "Abby bought it for her when she was named captain. Just don't loose it. It's her good luck charm." She smiled at that and he had a feeling he knew why. It was cute and rather fitting of the goth. Law enforcement was such a large part of her family.

"Captain. That's impressive. She must be good."

"Oh yea. Damn good. Her school says between academics and softball, she'll probably have a free ride to any college she wants," he told her proudly. It felt good to be able to boast about his daughter's achievements with someone. More importantly it felt good to share his daughter with someone he was beginning to care for.

[][][][][]

"Parker always wanted to join little league," she finally offered up. After all, he spent the majority of the car ride sharing. Something she doubted he did frequently or ever. But it seemed getting him talking on his daughter was the trigger. He told her of how they came to meet almost four months prior. Told her of how brilliant the girl was. Told her of how she constantly surprised him at every turn. And warned her that the young teenager's future was uncertain.

He didn't divulge many details and she opted not to pry. She had feeling she would have plenty of time to learn more. For now, she felt it was her turn to share something personable. "But I always feared sending him into a rather father-son oriented sport might upset him."

"I think little league is always a good choice for kids. Teaches them teamwork," he offered up cautiously. "And if I ever meet him, I'd be happy to show him the basics." That was what she liked about him. He never tried to push her or force his way into hers and Parker's lives. Just occasionally offered advice and volunteered to help her in anyway he could.

"I bet Emily would be happy to show him the ropes too if you're more comfortable with that. She and the other captains of both baseball and softball run a summer clinic for the younger kids. I'm sure she'd be willing to take Parker to it."

She couldn't help glancing over at him in awe. Never before had she met a man so considerate of her feelings and her natural instinct to protect her son. Then again, considering the amount of stress he must be under with his daughter's current situation, her overprotectiveness must look like nothing compared to his. "You're amazing, you know that."

He simply glanced over and smirked at her for an answer, before swerving into a parking space. Glancing out the window, she saw a group of baseball diamonds. The one on the far right looking as if it housed girls with similar uniforms as the one she briefly saw Emily wearing.

Being ever the gentleman, he came around to her side opening the door for her. After locking the car, he slid his arm around her waist and she instantly leaned into his side as he led them towards the appropriate field.

"Hey, Boss!" she heard Agent DiNozzo's voice cry when they drew closer to the field. "Over here!" Following the sound of his voice, she found him waving to them from the top of the visitor's bleachers with the rest of the gang,. They all appeared much more relaxed than the times she met them. Though she figured it probably had to do with this being her first opportunity to observe them off duty.

Agent DiNozzo was dressed the whole nine yards with a baseball cap, jersey and even a glove for "foul balls." By the enthusiasm radiating off him, she could tell he was the teenager's number one fan.

Agent David sat next to him, her long hair flowing free in the wind. She showed her spirit by helping hold a sign saying _Go SeaHawks!_ along side Abby, who was naturally dressed in her usual Goth attire. Only instead of her usual skull choke collar, she sported a baseball one instead.

Agent McGee looked like he'd had the misfortune of being at the opposite end of Agent DiNozzo and face paint. Having a black line drawn roughly across each cheek, he also got stuck holding Abby's umbrella over her head so she could hold the sign with Ziva.

Next to McGee sat the dynamic autopsy duo Palmer and Ducky. The former housing the largest grin she'd ever seen and looked to have willingly allowed DiNozzo to paint half his face like a baseball. The latter seemed to simply be content to just be there to watch the girl he considered a granddaughter play her favorite sport.

"They really get into this, don't they?" she whispered to Gibbs as they made their way up the bleachers to take their seats.

"You haven't even seen the half of it."

It was only when she spotted Abby for the second time that she realized she still had Emily's bracelet. "Gibbs," she said, stopping him and holding up the bracelet.

"You want to go give it to her? The game hasn't started yet, so she should still be in the dugout."

"Me?" she shrieked. He couldn't be serious. She hadn't met the girl for more than a minute. She couldn't possibly go down there.

"Yes. You," he chuckled, continuing his way up the bleachers, leaving her standing there looking dumbfounded.

Slowly she spun around and shuffled her way towards the dug out. Peaking around the corner awkwardly, she spotted the girl heading her way, all geared up to bat. No doubt heading to step out of the dugout for a few practice swings. "Dr. Ryan!" she cried, a wide smile peaking out from behind the cage of her helmet. "You guys made it."

"We did," she nodded, a small grin weaving its way on her own face not having expected the girl to be so warm and friendly to her. After all, it seemed she still held her mother's memory close to her heart and she admittedly was concerned how the girl might handle a new woman in her father's life. "You can call me Sam." It wasn't often she allowed anyone to call her that, but Dr. Ryan seemed too formal for what their future relationship entailed and Samantha just held far too many syllables.

"All right then, Sam. I'm really glad you could come." And she sounded completely sincere in her words, making her even more glad she came herself.

"Oh!" Her eyes lit up as she remembered why she came down here in the first place. "I have something for you," she said holding the bracelet up for Emily to see.

She was taken aback when the girl jumped up, her face brightening. But she was even more shocked when Emily flung her arms around her. "Oh my God! Thank you! Thank You! Thank You!" she exclaimed, pulling back to take the bracelet from her. "I'd have died if I didn't have this…or at least my performance in the game would have been a nightmare if you prefer the less dramatic explanation," Emily laughed, clipping it around her wrist.

Sam couldn't help but join in with her laughter. She really was every bit the sweetheart Gibbs described her of being. Perhaps she would ask Emily to bring Parker to the baseball clinic or at the very least toss a few balls around with him in the backyard. She would make a great babysitter for when she and Gibbs wanted some alone time and her sister was unavailable.

"Emily, you're up," a girl hollered for the dugout, breaking the moment.

Reluctantly Emily turned around and said she was coming. "I have to go, but, if you don't need to go home for Parker, afterwards we all go out to dinner. We…I'd love it if you joined."

"I'd like that," she admitted. Parker was at a sleepover at a friends house and she had no where to go but an empty old house. Dinner with Gibbs, Emily and the team sounded nice. "Break a leg…or whatever they say for luck in softball."

"Thanks," the girl laughed, running onto the field and right up to the plate. Maybe now was a good time to stop running. After all, who better to finally slow down and get to know than this loving, if not a little wacky, family.

[][][][][]

School started up again in two weeks, which meant tensions were running high. The past month and a half turned up little threat, but school would put her back out in the open, away from the constant protection of NCIS and the team. But most important of all, it would put her out of _his_ sight for nearly six hours a day, five days a week.

As a result, he'd had everyone gathered down in the basement every night for the past week, but it was beginning to take its toll on them all. Exhaustion overcame them days ago and as a result it seemed the only progress made was learning they could yell, scream, and argue just as much as any other family. If not more so.

"This is ridiculous," Tony cried from where he sat straddling a chair, bringing voice to Gibbs' observations. Wiping his eyes to wake himself up, he suggested, "Why don't we recap what we know so far? We haven't done that in a while."

"Recap what, Tony? We have nothing!" Ziva objected, forcing everyone to brace themselves for yet another screaming match. Of everyone present, the tension between these two the past few days could be cut with a knife. Whenever one would suggest something, the other would instantly find it preposterous. Gibbs knew their arguing came from a good place, though.

Ziva felt as threatened as he did that Emily's life was in danger. She had known his daughter longer than anyone else. Dead or alive. She was there when the girl was born and had continuously been ever-present throughout her entire life. Even as her father, in a way, his love for his daughter and anguish over her pain could still vastly be rivaled by Ziva's connection with her.

And then there was DiNozzo. While he may have found ways to live with it, it was obvious that the guilt he felt over Jenny's death never faded. It still haunted him and he made his own personal penance in choosing to protect her daughter with everything he had.

At first, knowing they were as determined as he was to protect Emily was comforting. The problem was Ziva and Tony rarely saw eye to eye on anything. Then add Abby, McGee, Ducky, Palmer and Emily, herself, into the mix and all he had was seven different people with seven different viewpoints on the matter.

"DiNozzo has a point," he interrupted, silencing any further squabbling. "We should start back at the beginning."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Abby raise her hand slightly, as if hesitant to say whatever it was that she wanted to say. Not that he could blame her with the mood in the room. "Abbs?" he encouraged.

"What about Paris?" she finally squeaked out and all eyes few instantly to her. Instinctively, his gaze hardened, never particularly thrilled when that subject was broached. But this was Abby he remembered, so he softened his expression allowing her to explain. "I just mean that it's the case that got Jenny killed."

Emily glanced up at this, slightly intrigued. He knew when she first got involved in gathering up the ancient history of her mother's past, it was to uncover the full truth about her mother's death. It was only catching wind of a threat against her own life that her focus begun to shift. He suspected she might be interested to return to solving the mysteries surrounding what really happened in that diner. After all, it seemed that more continued to pile up than actually got solved.

But as he stared into the beady, almost actual frog looking eyes of Rene Benoit's photograph plastered on the large whiteboard in front of him, something about the way the photo stared back told him there was more mysteries surrounding this man to be solved. His gut indicated Abby made a valid suggestion worth pursuing, much to his dislike, but it also said there was more to Rene than meets the eye. And _he_ was the one who made multiple kidnapping attempts against Emily as a child, so this had to have something to do with him. Had to be connected to him somehow.

"It's worth considering, but she has no connection to that case," he eventually decided, pushing Paris to temporarily to the back burner. "What happened in LA was Svetlana seeking revenge for me assassinating her lover."

Glancing over to see if his answer was acceptable enough for Emily, he was surprised to find and expression of deep thought overcoming her. He couldn't think of anything he just said that might spark something, but then again, he wasn't the genius. "It's always about love," she whispered so quietly he almost didn't hear her.

His brows furrowed in confusion as he processed her words. He couldn't fathom where she was going with this, but by the light in her eyes, he could see she was definitely going somewhere. "What?"

His question seemed to snap her out of her inner musing, alerting her that no one else had a clue as to the conclusion her brain was jumping to. He watched her cast a cautious look over at Tony and suddenly he remembered he wasn't the only one haunted by the final two years of Jen's life.

"Tony…I don't want to overstep…"

"Ask anything you want," he assured her and Gibbs was warmed by the sincerity in his voice. "Your life is on the line, so don't hold back for my sake."

Gibbs, thankful he'd chosen to stand near DiNozzo, patted his shoulder briefly to show his appreciation. The sort of self-sacrifice his eldest son was willing to make meant a great deal.

"Okay," Emily nodded, grateful for Tony's support. "Did my mother ever mention why she wanted you to pretend to date Jeanne?"

A brief flash of pain crossed Tony's face at first mention of his lost love, but his expression quickly changed to one of thoughtfulness, showing seven years could do a lot in terms of moving on. "I think she thought it might be a good way to get close to Grenouille," he eventually answered, but Gibbs could tell Tony was still racking his brain.

And Gibbs was intrigued by the possibility of at least getting a theory to start bouncing ideas of one another going. "But you don't think that's the reason," he announced as if reading his daughter's mind.

"A part of it? Yes. But not it's entirety," she said shaking her head. "You guys may not agree, but to me, it doesn't sound like her. Ever since….ever since Paris," she began, trying to tread lightly. "She was always cautious when it came to matters of the heart. No matter whose it was."

"She is correct Gibbs," Ziva agreed, surprising everyone in the room. "It is one reason why I was so angry with her. I didn't understand how she could have come up with the idea of playing with Jeanne's heart, not to mention Tony's, when it was so unlike her. Jenny never wanted someone to get hurt the way she knew she must have hurt you. Though I always suspected that perhaps her heart had once suffered damage as well."

Gibbs wanted to say something. Felt as if he should respond in some manor. Only he could think of nothing to say. Tony, on the other hand, sat up at something Ziva must have said, exclaiming, "That's it, Ziva! She mentioned something about doing to Jeanne what was once done to her." He looked quite proud of himself before adding, "I don't think she even knew I heard her or thought I would understand what she meant… which, admittedly, I don't"

Silence filled the room once more as the group worked to process what had been discussed thus far and Gibbs was glad to see they were finally making progress.

After a while, McGee chimed in, "What if Director Shepard was once in Jeanne's position? What if Grenouille once pursued her romantically to get close to someone she knew?"

A wide grin grew across Tony's face. "Waaay to go, McWriter! Now, we're getting somewhere!"

Something flickered across Emily's eyes and somehow Gibbs just _knew_ that her brilliant mind was piecing something together. Perhaps she determined just who Grenouille might have used her mother to get to or maybe it was something completely different. But, whatever it was, he did know it wasn't something she planned on sharing with the class. Instead, she opted to voice her agreement that the team was heading in the right direction. "That has to be it! I always knew there was bad blood between them long before I came into the picture."

"It would also explain where Jenny came up with the idea in the first place," Ziva agreed.

"Which means kidnapping you might have been more personal than professional," Tony mused, raising Gibbs' alarm. He didn't like where this was heading one bit, but it was the furthest they'd come in a long time and he wasn't about to stop it.

"Jennifer wanted to bring his arms dealing empire to its knees, so he fought back hard," Ducky continued where Tony left off, the group starting to find their groove once again.

"And you might have been the best way he knew how to go about doing it," Palmer supplied, finding his voice for the first time that week.

"The first time sent your mother into a frenzy. She did not sleep…eat…or do anything other than search for you," Ziva began to recall for Emily's benefit as well as everyone else.

"But it backfired on him because Mom took her determination to destroy him and turned it into an obsession," Emily interrupted, coaxing Ziva along.

"Exactly. So he fought back by simply threatening your life a second time. He knew he didn't need to actually act upon it to evoke the appropriate response from her."

"Which worked," Tony pointed out, eager to join the discussion now that they were heading in a positive direction. "Jenny's focus shifted more onto studying his whereabouts and shuffling you back and forth to Mexico. She unknowingly let her guard down to anything that didn't involve protecting you."

"And she got sloppy," Abby added. "First she fell for the fake weapons shipment…."

"Then she almost went down for his murder," Tony picked up in agreement.

"What if she wasn't having Anthony court dear Jeanne to get close to Rene, but to send him a message?" Ducky suggested, a big smile plastered on his face as the pieces started to fit together perfectly.

"Like if he was going to make it about family then she could too," McGee nodded.

"The feud was strictly between Mom and The Frog. Jeanne and I were just collateral damage."

Gibbs couldn't stand there and allow this to go on because that would mean they literally had nothing! Would mean everything they collected thus far was useless! And he just couldn't accept that.

But much to his disgust, he knew in his gut that what they theorized was true. There was simply no other explanation that pieced together all the broken fragments of Jen's connection to and obsession with Grenouille as clean a precise as this did.

But that didn't mean he had to like it. "Which means we've been looking at this all wrong," he screamed, slamming his fist down on the workbench in frustration. The chatter in the basement instantly fell silent, everyone turning to glance at him in shock.

"Maybe not, Boss," McGee piped up, breaking the silence and finding all eyes trained on him.

"How so?" Emily asked curiously. Her focus for seven years had been, as her mother's before her, centered around Grenouille. She would undoubtedly be as aggravated as him to learn that it had all been in vain. As nice as this new insight into Jen's last few years was, Emily's life still hung in the balance.

"Just because his intentions were of a personal nature, doesn't mean they didn't coincide with those of this mysterious group."

"He's right, Boss," Tony nodded. "He could still have had a connection to them. Maybe this group took him up on his offer to join them or maybe they even sought him out because of his personal feud with Jenny."

"What better way to keep to the shadows than to hide behind a man like Grenouille. Especially if you both have the same end game," Ziva chimed in.

Abby took over from there, continuing along a similar path. "Jenny would have been so blinded by the personal vendetta she and Grenouille had with each other to notice someone else was pulling the strings."

Well, all be damned. They raised a valid argument. Presented a very convincing case. Only if what they theorized turned out to be accurate, they were screwed. Hell they were beyond screwed! The exit for screwed passed ages ago and they just kept on driving by. "We are not talking about a few stray psychopaths with resources. We're talking about people with connections. People who would know exactly how Jen would react and what her next move would be even before she did. And trust me, that ain't easy!" He pointed out to them. "But more importantly, they are clearly involved in something they thought Jen would be either an asset or a threat to. And given her political and employment status, it sure as hell isn't good or legal."

"So we're looking for people of power. The high and mighty, wealthy kind. People who cannot only afford to pay to hire people like Grenouille and his band of merry men we met a short while ago to do their dirty work, but _need_ to in order to maintain their position of power," Tony concluded, his face going pale, suddenly understanding what had Gibbs so rattled.

"But that's crazy!" Emily objected. "You're talking about some sort of criminal empire. What could they possibly want with _me_? I mean I go to high school and play softball. Other than my mother being the former director of NCIS and dead, I'm not very exciting."

"Maybe that's it then," McGee said after a moment of thought. "The only people who know what really happened in that diner other than Mike Franks and Vance are in this room. Everyone else believes she died in a house fire. And I know there are a lot of people who don't believe a fire could possibly take out the director of a federal armed agency. Especially since…"

"I'm still alive."

[][][][][]

She let herself in. For someone as protective of his daughter as he was, it seemed odd his habit of leaving the door unlocked still persisted. "Hello?" she hollered, not wanting to venture too far into the house unannounced. That tended to end with Gibbs flying into the room ready to attack. And, as amusing as that was, she wasn't particularly interested in having that occur while she was all dressed up.

"Hey, Sam!" Emily greeted, attempting to slip an eating in as she hurried down the stairs.

For a moment, Sam was speechless. Emily looked breathtakingly stunning. She wore a gorgeous silk forest green gown. She pinned her hair up, revealing not only her pretty face, but a sparkling diamond necklace and matching earrings. She looked so much older than sixteen and Sam wasn't quite sure she wanted to let her out of the house looking like that.

She'd become fond of the girl in such a short period of time. After all, how could she not? Emily was such a sweet girl. Raised properly, first by her mother, then by her surrogate uncle, and now by her father. Each playing a role in creating the beautiful young woman she was today. And on top of it all, she was just wonderful with Parker. Something Sam appreciated above everything else. She was a great babysitter and a fabulous role model.

"Look at you," she smiled, pulling Emily into a warm hug before holding her at arms length. "You look stunning."

"As do you," she responded in kind. "What no Parker? I thought he promised to be my date this evening?"

Sam couldn't help but laugh at that, along with the memory of Parker's puppy dog face when she told him he had to stay home. Tonight was the annual NCIS awards banquet. Dinner, dancing, and of course the ceremony itself. Parker was far too young for such an event. "I can assure you he is exceptionally disappointed to be missing out. Is Carson not coming?" she asked, surprised the girl's boyfriend wasn't to accompany them. Though considering Emily's wardrobe, Gibbs would probably be inclined to murder the young boy if he so much as looked at her.

"Naw," Emily shook her head. "He hates these things."

"Speaking of hating these events, where is your father?" It would not surprise her in the slightest to hear Gibbs was taking his sweet time getting ready simply to put off going a little while longer.

"He should be down soon…I hope," she laughed, glancing up the stairs. "Hustle up, Marine," she hollered before turning back to Sam. 'Last time I checked on him, he was fiddling around with his bow tie."

Sam smiled at that. What was it with men and bow ties? They could tie a regular tie no problem, but give them a bow tie and God help them all. Ducky being the only exception she'd met thus far. "I'll go hurry him along."

Walking up the stairs, she started down the hallway, she gave a light knock on the master bedroom door before walking in. After all, it wasn't anything she hadn't seen before. She found him in the bathroom, grumbling to himself in front of the mirror. Leaning against the doorframe, she took the opportunity to observe him unnoticed for a moment.

For someone who hated fancy events, he looked sharp and positively sexy dressed to the nines in his tuxedo. The pants were a tad snug giving her a rather nice view and she was beginning to wonder if she'd be able to draw her eyes away from his ass long enough to enjoy any other aspect of the evening.

A frustrated grunt managed to drag her attention away from his rather fine behind to watch him tear the thin black fabric that would become his tie off his neck once more. Letting out a small chuckle of amusement at his aggravation, she started over to him. Her heels clicking on the tile floor alerted him to her presence. He began to turn around to greet her, but she placed a hand on his shoulder, directing him back towards the mirror. Folding up his collar, she grabbed the tie off the counter. She felt him stiffen as her arms glided across his shoulders, wrapping around his neck to tie his tie for him, "There," she grinned, flipping his collar down again. "Much better."

He turned around slowly in her arms, wrapping his own around her waist. He lowered his head to capture her lips with his own and she was just about to allow his pestering tongue entrance when a voice interrupted. "Seriously guys! Do that on your own time! We have a banquet to get to."

Rolling his eyes, Gibbs pulled back to give his daughter a look and the next thing she knew, Emily was shrieking and jumping out of the way of towel flying across the room.

"Jethro," she chastised. "She's all dressed up and she does have a point."

"You know I don't think I like this new thing. You two ganging up on me."

Pressing her lips together to contain her laughter, Emily held her arm out, instructing Sam to take it. "Sam," she smiled.

Adjusting her shawl, she linked her arm around the girl's. "Why thank you," she said, as they started towards the hallway leaving a rather dumbstruck Gibbs in their wake.

[][][][][]

What just happened? One moment he'd been holding the Doc in his arms and the next he'd been dumped for his teenage daughter. Before her hair greyed, she had to have been a redhead. It was such a redhead thing to do. And if anyone would know, it was him.

Smirking, he quickly hurried after them before they could leave without him…in his car. When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he found an amused Doc holding her hand out to him. She looked wonderful, he noted, getting his first good look at her. Her knee length, black, short-sleeved dress hugged her ever curve in all the right places to make him wish they could just go right back upstairs. And her wrap around thingy was a nice touch too.

Jen used to wear those. He remembered her explaining to him its _proper name_, though he couldn't for the life of him recall it. Then again, he could never really focus on anything Jen said when she was dressed up. She always looked so sexy, making him feel as if his pants were two sizes too small. And…

And he needed to stop thinking about her and focus on the woman who was alive and standing in front of him. Taking her hand, he kissed her fingers lightly, asking, "Are we ready to go?"

"Emily's just letting Shepard out one more time before we go," she informed him.

"In that case…" he smirked, pulling her close once more. Brushing his hand across her cheek in a warm caress, he whispered, "Where were we?"

"Right about here," she whispered back before pulling his lips down to meet hers. He deepened the kiss, wrapping his arms tighter around her waist.

"You look great, by the way," he complimented.

"You don't look so bad yourself," she responded, playfully tugging on the lapels of his penguin suit.

"Shepard!" they heard a shriek coming from the back of the house. "You give me my shoe back right now!"

"Never a dull moment in the Gibbs family household," he chuckled before hurrying off to pry the shoe out of the dog's mouth. And this time, he wasn't even going to bother to ask how the dog managed to get a hold of it when it supposedly on her foot. He didn't want to know.

Pulling Shepard's mouth open and removing the sandal, Gibbs glanced up and was nearly knocked back to the ground by how stunning his daughter looked. As gorgeous as her mother she was, though he was smart enough not to voice that. Plenty of people would do so for him this evening no doubt. Clad in that forest green dress from his surprise dinner at Valentino's that he thought he vowed to insure "mistakenly" disappeared, she radiated her beauty and he thanked whatever God might be responsible for the small blessing that Carson would not be joining them this evening.

Still… "You are going to wear a coat or something, right?"

She merely raised an eyebrow as a response, slipping her foot back into her shoe. "It's August and ninety degrees outside…I don't thinks so."

"Relax, Gibbs," a voice chuckled from behind them. "We are going to an NCIS banquet. Everyone in attendance will know she is your daughter and that you are likely to shoot anyone of them that so much as looks at her."

With a moment's hesitation, he finally shrugged, offering an arm to each of his dates. It was a fair point, after all.

[][][][][]

She decided to crash at is place for the night. Parker was at her sister's for the sleepover and they'd gotten back form the banquet rather late. So after kicking off her heals and changing to more comfortable attire, she snuggled up to Gibbs on the couch, just content to sit there with him.

A pounding on the stairs alerted them to Emily's presents even before she reached the final stair, her gown long since abandoned for sweats. "Where do you think you're going?" Gibbs questioned the girl.

"Um… just down to the basement for a bit," she hesitated.

"I thought we had a deal that we only go through that stuff together."

Emily merely rolled her eyes. "I know. I know. Whatever affects me affects you too," she mocked, doing a one eighty to face the stairs once more. "You win. Facebook it is."

"Whatever affects her affects you?" she asked in disbelief, when she heard the girl's bedroom door shut once more. "I'll have to remember that for when Parker becomes a teenager."

"Uh huh. Mock me if you will, but clearly it works," he objected, and she just shook her head, snuggling back into his side.

Her eyes fluttered and she found herself still on the couch, a blanket tucked around her. Clearly she must have dosed off. Noticing the basement door cracked open, she quietly snuck down the stairs to find him sitting on his workbench, staring what could be considered a murder board if they were at NCIS and not in his basement.

She moved to sit next to him in silence for a while before he finally broke it. "She knows something she's not telling me."

"She's a teenager, Gibbs. She probably knows a lot of things she isn't telling you," she joked, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

"Haha very funny," he muttered. "You didn't see her the other day when we finally started making progress on the case. She figured out something. Something the rest of us didn't."

"Well, she has been working on this case a lot longer than the rest of you. She likely hasn't told you everything. Or at least I wouldn't if I'd only met my father at the start of the summer."

"Everyone seems to believe that whatever this group is doing, they need to make sure Jenny is actually dead," he recapped for her, though she could tell he wasn't exactly sold on the idea.

"But you think differently?"

"Not exactly. I think they're right. Jenny got too close. That's what she does best, but it's still an awful lot of trouble to go through simply to insure she's dead. Especially when they clearly haven't been bothered by her in seven years," he explained and he posed a fair point. Why kidnap Emily twice? Why stalk her for the past seven years? Why stage a series of murders in order to lure Emily out into the open and out of Gibbs protection? Why go to such great lengths to find out about a dead woman no one's heard anything about in seven years?

"Before he died, Grenouille requested NCIS protection because Jen was the only person he could trust. What the hell was he running from?"

"It would make sense that this group might have turned on him. Why else would he turn to the one person least likely to help him in the entire world if he wasn't absolutely sure she wasn't the one person in the world he could trust wasn't working for the people after him?"

"And the only way he would know that would be if they were after her too," he agreed. The only problem was that still left them in the same place they started. "Emily's the target. She has to be. The only question is why?"

"Well, for starters, she's a genius. I know a lot of criminal empires that would pay dearly to get their hands on someone of her intelligence level."

His head perked up at that and he glanced over to her, a light bulb in his head going off. "And before I came into the picture, who was the one person they would need to insure was out of the way before they could get their hands on her?"

She turned to stare at him, eyes widening when she realized where he was headed with this. "Jenny," they both exclaimed at the same time.

She could barely concentrate on work. Instead her brain kept drifting back to the conclusions she and Gibbs had come up with the previous week. They made some headway and, yet, it still felt like they were barely scratching the surface of this whole thing. Not only was she pissed that there was some criminal empire out there she hadn't heard of, she was pissed that no matter what channels she seemed to reach out to she received no viable information in return. Someone had to know something. Only it seemed they didn't.

She could only imagine what Gibbs must be going through. If Parker so much as scraped his knee she freaked. She couldn't fathom what she would do if some group of criminal masterminds and their accompany of hitmen were after him. And worst of all, Emily was hiding something. Actually, she was hiding quite a bit. That much she knew, but the most frustrating thing of all was she couldn't figure out what.

A knock on a door startled her and she looked up in surprise to see none other than Emily standing in her doorway. "Emily?"

"I hope I'm not disturbing you," she apologized rather shyly.

"No. Not at all," she assured her, gesturing to the seats in front of her desk. "Make yourself comfortable.

Nodding, Emily quietly slipped into one of the chairs and with a deep breath cut right to the chase. "I need your help."

"My help?" She certainly wasn't expecting that. Other than being supportive of her dating her father, the two hadn't really spoken that much.

"My Dad must have told you people are trying to kill me."

"He may have mentioned it," she admitted.

"Look, first things first, he can't know I'm here or anything I'm about to tell you."

"I can't promise you that, Emily. Even if I wasn't involved with him, he is your father and until you're eighteen he has not only a right, but an obligation to know anything that concerns you or your safety."

"Not if what I say could be considered confidential with you as a psychologist," she offered up slyly nothing shy about her presence anymore.

"You're not my patient and I'm not that type of psychologist."

"That's too bad. I could use one." Somehow she doubted the girl was sincere about that, even though it was probably very true that she could indeed use one with everything going on.

"This is what all those questions about my job and how I work for the Department of Defense was about at the banquet, wasn't it?" She should have known the girl didn't really have any interest in the DOD and what it was like to work there. She already had her heart set on NCIS.

"Could you really blame me if it was? My life is hanging in the balance and I have no idea what I possibly did or what I could possibly do that would put me in this position. Whatever the case, I'm here now an all I have to operate on is hunches. My father acts on gut instincts. I don't. Especially when I know I need to dig further if I'm going to have any chance of surviving this."

She did pose a fair point. Gibbs would act on any tiny shred of evidence Emily offered up without thinking if it was decoy information or even accurate at all. And the only person that seemed to be able to process everything going on around them and draw any type of logical and reasonable conclusions was the girl in front of her.

She was in a difficult position. Gibbs had a right to know whatever Emily could potentially tell them and he would absolutely kill her if she kept anything this vital from him. And, yet, she knew Emily was prepared to walk out the door without telling her anything if she didn't agree to her terms. And a sixteen year old should not be operating alone with the type of people they knew to be after her. She needed someone who knew what she knew and to have her back.

"I'll make you a deal," she decided, knowing she would probably regret this when it all played out. "For whatever information I share with you, you promise to fill me in with everything that you find out. And in return I promise not to tell your father until _we_ have proof that your hunches are more than speculation."

The girl sat in thought for a while before finally nodding. Clearly deciding the information she needed was far more important than the information she would need to give up to get it. "Deal. Now, what I need is access to a case file. The death of a colonel. The cause was ruled a suicide."

That was certainly not what she was expecting. "Who was victim?"

"Colonel Jasper Shepard."


End file.
